


Torn

by CJMarvelEye



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-24
Updated: 2015-03-29
Packaged: 2018-03-08 22:33:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 44,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3225947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CJMarvelEye/pseuds/CJMarvelEye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Begins in AoS S1 (The Hub) Could a chance meeting in the Hub change everything? Tension continues to rise between teammates and secrets are slowly uncovered. Follows main plot points in MCU with fluff and drama in between. T for now. Expect some of the Avengers to make appearances.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chance Encounters

A/N: I don’t own any of these characters. I’m just taking them out for a spin.  
Chapter One  
Since being thawed and the Battle of New York Steve Rodgers had been tirelessly taking on the more difficult problems that seemed to plague SHIELD. The issues that had been exposed by Stark still rankled him but, he stayed. Learning that Peggy was one of the leading forces behind the organization gave him a sense of meaning. Steve desperately wanted to ensure that SHIELD remained to his first loves vision, even if at the moment he had his doubts that her memory was being honored in these halls.  
He had just completed a relatively simple mission and returned to the Hub for debriefing. SHIELD had been tracking and attempting eradicate a group that was trying to turn people into puppet soldiers with super human strength. Centipede was starting to become more and more irritating with every unsuccessful raid. 

Steve spotted the group as soon as he walked out of the locker room near the hangar bay and stopped in his tracks. While he had been told that Coulson miraculously recovered from his wound this was the first time Steve saw the man for himself. He briefly considered calling out to get Coulson’s attention but quickly decided that he would prefer any conversation he had with Coulson to be in a more private place than a crowded SHIELD hallway. So instead he elected to follow the group Coulson was walking with. 

Steve glanced over each of the people with Coulson. Though he didn’t recognize any of them but it was easy to tell the taller man in the standard issue suit was a black ops specialist and the leather clad Asian woman was at least a field agent. He also assumed the two were quietly babbling words he couldn’t pronounce, let alone understand, were science officers. 

But it was the small girl with the long brown hair that he couldn’t quite place. His eyes kept drifting to her as he followed the group discreetly. Even with the distance he was keeping Steve could see she was pretty. It was when she swiveled around a bit and he saw her face as she looked around that he realized pretty wasn’t the word. This girl was breath taking.  
If getting to have a chat with Coulson wasn’t enough incentive to keep an eye on this group the girl certainly was.  
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
As the team headed toward the security check point Skye couldn’t help but be impressed by the massive base they were heading into. She had always assumed that SHIELD was a massive organization but, she had never considered that they had massive bases to boot. “Wow, I didn’t realize that big brother was this… big.”  
The science twins looked to her with excited smiles but it was Simmons that spoke first, “Oh this is nothing! Wait until you see the Triskellion!”

While they continued walking in the hallway Skye’s head kept swiveling around. She was trying to take in as much as she could. It wasn’t every day that a hacker that previously spent a great amount of time leaking this very organizations secrets was invited in. “Umm everyone is wearing the same suit. Someone tell me why please…”  
Coulson shook his head, laughing to himself. He was always surprised by the way Skye’s brain analyzed things. It was impossible to guess what she would say or do next. He just continued to lead the team to the security check point that would issue the temporary badges that gave access to the various facilities in the Hub. 

“Don’t I get one?” Skye questioned when everyone else clipped the ID tags on. 

Pointing to the bracelet that had been attached to Skye’s wrist since the Miles incident Coulson informed her, “That’s your badge, which means you’ve got a long way to go to even make level one.” 

Skye glanced down at the constant reminder of the mistake she had made. She realized that just because the team had forgiven her didn’t mean that the situation was forgotten yet. “Copy that.” She sighed then decided to try and plead her case to Coulson. “But does that also mean that no access to any computers whatsoever? I just want to run a search on the redacted SHIELD file about my parents…”

She was interrupted by a wary sounding Coulson, “Skye…”

“But it just seems like the place they would keep them, right?” She quietly pressed. 

Coulson stopped Skye with a hand to her shoulder and made sure he had her full attention. “I promise I will look into this for you. But right now we have more pressing matters at hand, okay?”

Skye nodded and watched as Coulson began talking with another agent with an incredibly shiny head. Fits and Simmons stopped next to her eyes following Coulson as well. 

Simmons couldn’t keep the awe from her voice, “Victoria Hand…”

“Is here.” Fits finished in the strange way they usually ended one another sentences. 

Skye took a couple steps toward the door the others had entered, hoping to just catch a glimpse of what all the fuss was about. There was no way to stop the surprised squeal from escaping when her bracelet was suddenly pulled and locked to a panel near the door. 

Fitz and Simmons both chuckled at the predicament Skye found herself in. The chuckles turned to full blown laughter when Skye looked to them and asked, “Is this their subtle way of telling me to stay here?”

Turning back to where she thought Fitz and Simmons were, all Skye saw was the pair scurrying off babbling something about new equipment. She grumbled to herself, “I don’t think it likes me here.”  
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
Steve had followed the group until they all split off leaving Skye. With the help of his advanced hearing he caught most of their conversations and now he was even more intrigued by the beautiful Skye. She wasn’t an agent and the tracking bracelet seemed to indicate that she had done something that made SHIELD monitor and limit her but she remained valuable enough that Coulson wanted her around. 

He stood next to one of the many pillars in the hall way and continued watching her for a few more moments. Steve bit back a laugh when she tried to tug her hand away from the wall panel with an adorable pout. After a few seconds passed the system seemed to suddenly deactivate and caused her to stumble. 

That’s what did it. Steve couldn’t stop the laugh escaping his mouth. He watched Skye’s eye snap to where he stood watching her. He got to watch her eye widen in recognition and surprise then her cheeks color with embarrassment. 

They stared at one another for what felt like an eternity to Steve until he heard his name being paged over the PA system requesting his presence in the debrief room.  
Before turning to make his way to the meeting Steve shot Skye a friendly smile and casual wave. He was a little disappointed that the moment was over but made promise to himself that he’d to get another one with the mysterious Skye.  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
After Agents Coulson, May, and Ward had told the rest of the team a vague description of the situation Fitz stood in his bunk packing a small pack of items that would be likely be needed in order to complete this assignment. He was only giving Jemma half an ear, his brain still processing that he was going out in the field. 

“I just can’t believe you’re going in the dark, into hostile territory, without comms, lacking any real physical strength….” She spoke in a rush as she picked at the hem of her sweater. 

“I’ll be fine.” Fitz tried to sound comforting but failed even to his own ears. 

Jemma nodded, trying to force herself to remain positive. “Did you pack the antivenin pack I gave you? You know the Caucasus have a plethora of highly endemic spider species and that’s the last thing you should be worried about while you’re out there…” 

Fitz finally turned to give the anxious woman his full attention. “Jemma, stop. Stop worrying about me. I can do this.” He turned back to his bag rechecking to make sure that he had in fact packed the kit. “Thank you.” 

The two sat in silence for a few moments, too many thoughts to voice all at once. It was Fitz who spoke up again. “And don’t you do anything rash while I’m gone. Like jump out of an airplane.” 

“Well, you’ll be careful, right?” Jemma still needed to be reassured that he would come back in one piece. “Oh! I almost forgot I made you your favorite sandwich. Prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella-“ 

“With your home made aioli?!” He beamed.  
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
After he finishing packing, a process that require both of the younger female agents checking to ensure he included various things the three moved to join Coulson, May, and Ward in the control center. As they entered May was continuing the mission break down with Ward. “You need to disable the overkill device by 0600 tomorrow in order to prevent the separatist attack.” 

Ward nodded not taking his eye off the interactive map currently displayed on the holotable. It was Coulson that offered the next step, “Once you signal SHIELD the extraction team will get you both out.” 

Ward though Coulson would leave it at that and was a little surprised when the older man looked him in the eyes and quietly said, “Take care of him.”  
It was interesting for Ward to see a supervising officer that genuinely cared about the agents in his command. Coulson was the first lead agent that seemed to value everyone on his bus. He tried to show Coulson that he was taking Fitz’s safety very seriously and agreed, “Of course, sir.” 

“Alright more moving and less talking Agent Ward. Time is not on our side.” Fitz finally spoke up breaking what was becoming a very tense moment.  
The moment it was just Skye and Coulson still in the room, she turned and confronted him. “Does this feel okay to you? Shouldn’t we be going with them? Handling this as a team?” 

Coulson couldn’t help the momentary desire to whole heartedly agree with the girl that was slowly becoming one of the few people in the world that made him question the choices he was making. Instead he took a deep breath and reached out to put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “The people who put together this op are the best of the best. They know what they’re doing. And I promise I will keep my eye on it, okay?” 

Skye shook her head and moved to follow the rest of the group out. She knew she wouldn’t feel better until Ward and Fitz were back safely on the bus where they belonged.  
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
The debrief of the latest Centipede fiasco took longer than Steve expected it to. By the end of the ordeal he was getting more and more anxious that he had missed the opportunity to clear the air with Coulson and hopefully actually meet Skye. 

Sure, he’d only seen the girl briefly but, he wasn’t dead and she was gorgeous. He couldn’t help but be intrigued. She didn’t look like the typical SHIELD agent so why was she walking around with Coulson? What was the tracking bracelet on her wrist for? 

At the first opportunity, Steve jogged over to the nearest security desk and got the attention of the agent on duty. “Excuse me, ma’am?” 

“How can I help you?” She asked in a bored tone without bothering to look up from her computer screen. 

“I was just wondering if you could tell me if a certain agent is still in the building.” 

“You would have to have a level –,“ When she finally glanced up, Steve saw the recognition flash on her eyes and watched her entire face flush with embarrassment. “I’m so sorry Captain Rodger! I didn’t realize it was you. Of course I can see if an agent is available… I’ll just need the name.” 

Sometimes being easily recognized had its perks and this was definitely one of them. “Agent Phil Coulson.” 

He watched as the desk agent typed something into the screen before looking up at him with an overly flirtatious smile. “Agent Coulson is still on site. His command is docked in Bravo hanger bay while he assists on a mission being coordinated in the East situation room.” 

“Thank you ma’am.” 

Steve decided to take a peek into the situation room first. When Fury told him that SHIELD doctors had managed to revive Coulson after the Battle of New York, Steve felt like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Though, he hadn’t been able to develop a deep relationship with the agent, Steve had respected him and saw how the idea of his death effected the rest of the Avengers. It took a great man to inspire that much loyalty from such a diverse group. 

It was easy to tell even before reaching the door to the situation room that the operation was in full swing. People could be seen walking around different stations, there seemed to be a constant stream of agents entering or leaving the room. Whatever what going on looked important. Steve could just make out Coulson’s silhouette among the agents staring at the huge display map. It struck Steve that if he wanted to try and snag a relatively private moment with Coulson his best bet would be to wait in this area to snag him as he left the operation room. He found a small bench along the wall that was out of the way but still allowed him to watch the room’s entrance. He’d waited a year to see his friend again so keeping a little bit of patience wouldn’t be difficult.  
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
With Ward and Fitz gone to God knows where and Coulson still holed up in the situation room it was just the three girls in bus’ lab area. Well, just the girls and the dozen or so techs that seemed to be carrying out all the maintenance throughout the plane in one go. 

Simmons turned away from her computer screen just in time to see one such tech almost knock Fitz’s new night night gun to the floor. “Oh! No, no, no, no, no, no!” She snatched it away and quickly put it in her bag. It was the only place that seemed safe from the busy hand of all the people milling about. 

“Can you imagine what Fitz would do if the night night gun was broken when he came back?” Jemma laughed glancing up at Skye and May. It struck her again that she had no idea when Fitz would be back so she turned to her friend for reassurance. “Surely he’ll be okay out there, right?” 

Skye desperately wanted to alleviate the stress she saw in Simmons’ eyes but, she just couldn’t shake this awful feeling about the mission the boys were on. Instead of trying to placate Simmons, Skye decided to try a pry some more useful answers out of May. “Well, Agent May is level 7. Maybe she could give us an update on their mission.” 

May kept he face as passive as possible while the two girls cast hopeful glances her way. This was a question she was not willing to answer. 

“Does that face mean you know something and you can’t tell us or that you don’t know anything?” Skye persisted. “Which non expression is this?” 

Even though May not always show it, there were times she greatly enjoyed Skye’s smart mouth. May cast a pointed look at the young hacker, “We know what we are supposed to know. When we have more information we’ll react.”

When the lab fell into an awkward silence May spoke up, “Everyone clear out. I need to run diagnostics and reboot all the systems. That includes you two.”

Skye and Simmons gathered up their bags and started walking back into the Hub. Skye still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was really wrong. “Look you guys may be ok with being in the dark but I’m not into it. I need answers… And I know just the person who has them.” 

Simmons listened to Skye’s rant and silently agreed. Thinking that she may not fully agree with the compartmentalization of intel like she had previously. “Who are you going to ask?” 

“Coulson. I’m obviously talking about Coulson.”  
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
Steve had been sitting in the same spot waiting for Coulson to leave the operation room for a little more than thirty minutes when it finally happened. The man in question seemed to be deeply engrossed in his thoughts as he didn’t even glance where Steve had been sitting. 

Just as Steve was about to catch up to Coulson, Skye rushed past him calling out. “Hey Coulson. Fancy seeing you here.” 

She had been close enough that Steve could add one more hint about her. She smelled like vanilla and sugar. He let them walk a few more paces then chose to follow and eavesdrop. Though he knew it wasn’t the most polite thing to do it was also the best way to figure out what was going on. Coulson looked tense, Skye looked tense. Steve was just more intrigued. 

Coulson sighed. Steve could see the tension in his shoulders even from ten paces behind. “Skye… I told you I would look into the file about your parents…”  
The list of questions Steve was compiling seemed to grow with every passing moment. Where did she need to search about her parents in a SHIELD file? Were they agents? He focused his attention on the task at hand. 

“No, I know. That’s not why I’m here. I just wanted to know more about Ward and Fitz’s mission. Simmons is seriously starting to unravel without Fitz here and I want to help calm her down a bit.” Her voice was filled with concern. Steve smiled and added caring friend to what intrigued him about Skye. 

When the pair stopped walking Steve turned tried to look like he was reading one of the screens on the wall as he continued to listen. “I know this is hard to hear but, you don’t have the clearance to know the details of this mission, Skye.” 

The standard issue SHIELD answer made Steve’s stomach turn. SHIELD seemed to be riddled with secrets and nothing good ever seemed to come from them. Skye’s tone become a little angry, “But I do have eyes. I saw six squads in full tactical gear, three crates of RPGs, and a full crew of analysts head into operations. Are you really trying to tell me that had nothing to do with Ward and Fitz’s mission?

Steve was impressed. He seen each of the Avengers back down from arguing with Coulson. Yet, this tiny slip of girl showed no fear and was almost baiting him. Skye had guts. 

“You need to trust the system, Skye.” Coulson said with an odd amount of kindness in his voice. Steve watched as the agent even squeezed her arm in a gesture of comfort. 

Steve watched as Coulson continued walking but Skye remained where she was. While she seemed disappointed, Steve seriously doubted she was just going to go along with what Coulson said. He could see it in the determined set of her jaw. 

When someone else approached Skye it took Steve a second to recognize them. It was the female science officer that had been walking with the group this morning. The hope was hard to miss when she asked Skye how it went. 

“Nothing.” Skye snorted. “He’s acting like a robot version of himself right now.” 

A few moments passed in silence as Steve continued to watch over them. When he began to consider that maybe Skye was going to let her questions go he heard her speak with new resolve. “If we want the truth we’ve got to get it ourselves.” 

The science officer seemed to consider this for a moment. “Ok… how would you suggest we…? Oh! Wait, no!” 

“Yes.” Skye said emphatically. 

Steve could see the other girl shaking her head rapidly, “Oh no! I cannot be a part of your bad girl shenanigans! I like following the rules and doing what’s expected of me. It makes me feel nice.” 

‘Bad girl shenanigans’ Steve thought to himself. What on Earth was this girl going to do? 

Giving up the pretense of reading the board on the wall Steve turned to fully watch the scene before him. Skye grabbed the other girl’s shoulders and shook her slightly. “Simmons, wake up! Ward and Fitz went on a top secret two man operation and look around! There are more men. So it’s either a bigger deal and they aren’t telling us or something went wrong out there. And sure, maybe there’s nothing we could do to help. But we have to know if there is. What if they are injured or being tortured somewhere right now?” 

All the color drained out of the Simmons’ girls face. “Fitz, tortured… Ok what exactly do you have in mind?” 

As they continued walking their voices dropped to whispers that even with his enhanced hearing Steve couldn’t catch what they were saying. There was no way he was going to miss this though. Whatever they were planning, he had a feeling they were going to need help and for some reason he felt compelled to make sure he was the one to help them.


	2. Digging

A/N: I still don’t own the characters.  
Chapter Two

It only took Skye fifteen minutes to come up with a decent plan. She knew that there was no way she was going to completely escape notice while she hacked her way into an active mission. All she needed was a few minutes to get the information she needed. It didn’t matter to her that she was going to get caught, her only concern at the moment was making sure the guys were ok. 

What was truly surprising was the fact that Simmons was on board with the whole plan. Skye thought for sure she would chicken out at the idea that they were definitely going to be caught. She was surprised to find that for the moment it seemed like the two of them could agree that getting in trouble for getting answers was more palatable than remaining in the dark. 

Once they reached the farthest point that Skye could follow, they went over the plan one last time. Simmons used her biometric scan to open the secure door and Skye began talking her through the process. “Okay, you have the flash drive, go!” 

Simmons started walking down the hallway and it just felt natural for Skye to keep talking to her through the comms. “The flash drive will run a decoy crawler that will use my browser history to simulate my usual online activity. So while SHIELD thinks I’m trolling reddit and facebook-“ 

“You’ll be hacking the files for Wards and Fitz’s mission.” Simmons finished. 

Nodding to herself Skye continued, “Now once you plug it in, I’ll only have about three minutes before-“ 

“SHIELD catches on and stops you.” 

“You do realize that you keep-“ 

“Finishing your sentences. I know. I’m sorry.” This was the way Simmons handled stressful situations, she babbled. “Oh wow, this is just a tad bit thrilling.” 

Skye filed Simmons admission for later use. “Well now we just to figure out a way to get the wall panel open.” 

“Not to worry. I made up a special something.” Simmons proudly reached in her bag and found the small aerosol spray that would mimic the last handprint to open the panel and force the sensors to reopen. “It’s what we do.” Simmons said proudly. 

Simmons always found a way to surprise Skye with her forward thinking. “Oh wow. Okay now you just need to find a USB port.” 

While Simmons was preoccupied trying to pull the flash drive from her bag she didn’t notice a familiar agent approaching her until she heard, “Agent Simmons.” 

Jemma jumped back surprised. “Oh hello Mr. Agent Sitwell, sir.” 

“It’s fine, Simmons. Just play it cool.” Skye could hear the other girl beginning to panic so she tried to soothe her. 

After a deep calming breath, Simmons carried on with an overly bright smile, “What bring you to this restricted hallway so late at night?” 

“I could ask you the same thing.” Sitwell rebutted in what sounded friendly and joking. 

Simmons kept her fake smile plaster to her face and leaning slightly closer, “No, don’t.” 

The panic that Skye had heard in her friends voice was getting worse, “Simmons, focus. Just make up an excuse and try and get him to leave.” 

As fast as Simmons’ brain could move, it always faltered when she needed to lie on her feet. “I was just on my way to the loo.” She injected a false laugh into her voice. “I could swear it was two rights and a left but is that here?” 

Sitwell glanced at her and the panel behind her, suddenly becoming suspicious. “That’s a wall panel. Why are you accessing it?”

“Don’t spiral! Just say something.” Skye urged. When Simmons remained frozen, she added, “Anything.” 

Simmons was frozen, staring at a superior officer, in the middle of breaking several SHIELD codes. She blurted the first thing she could think to say, “My, you certainly have a gorgeous head.” 

When the awkward silence continued, Simmons just carried on with her horrible attempt at flirting. “I like men that are about my height but heavier than me.”  
Skye smacked a hand to her head. This was the worst attempt at flirting Skye had ever heard. “Stop talking. Just stop.” 

Apparently, Sitwell found what Simmons had been babbling offensive because his attitude suddenly shifted from almost friendly to suspicious. “Agent Simmons do you have authorization to access that panel?” 

Simmons panic was now starting to spread to Skye so she quickly whispered through the comms, “Say yes. Say you do.” 

The science officer froze momentarily before nodding and starting to dig through her bag. “Oh of course… Umm I certainly have it somewhere in my bag.” Simmons couldn’t figure out what she should do. She needed help, she whispered to Skye, “He’s on to me.” 

“Stop talking to me! He can hear you!” 

“Are you on comms with someone?!” Sitwell exclaimed at the same time before he pulled his radio out of his pocket. “This is Agent Sitwell, I need an escort-“ 

As she was digging through her bag pretending to look for an authorization she didn’t have, Simmons’ hand closed over the night night gun she had slipped in from the lab while she had been on the bus. With speed she wasn’t aware she was capable of, Simmons drew the weapon and shot Sitwell in the chest. “Ahh! I’m sorry.” 

Skye stood frozen staring through the glass doors. “Oh my God. Oh my God.” 

After grabbing the unconscious agent by his ankles and dragging him out of view of a main access point, Simmons jammed the flash drive in the port and scurried out to join Skye. “Ok, I definitely shot Agent Sitwell…Good, good, good.” She stopped in front of Skye panting from the surge of adrenaline. “Was that alright?” 

“No, that was terrible. You are terrible at this.” 

Simmons wrung her hands thinking back over the last few moments. “The night night gun was there and I-“ 

“We need help. You need to go get May!” Skye interrupted. They didn’t have time to go over how badly this had gone. 

All of the color drained from Simmons face. “May?! No!” 

Again, Skye grabbed her friend by the shoulders to make sure she was focused, “Listen, that flash drive will only give me a few minutes to access the mainframe to find out what happened to our boys. So just go get May! Tell her it was an accident.” 

As Skye sat down and began typing rapidly on the keys of the laptop, Simmons began heading off in the direction of the hangar bay muttering, “Oh, I am going to be court martialed!” 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

During this whole exchange the girls had been too focused on their objective to take note that Steve had been following them since Skye approached Coulson. As he listened to Skye lay out the plans with the scientist he now knew was Simmons, it struck him that Stark would love this girl. She had questions and she was going to do what she had to in order to get answers. Not unlike what Stark had done on the helicarrier. 

Skye’s plan was impressive. Well, at least the parts he could understand. She was apparently a computer genius and a stubborn one at that. I couldn’t keep eyes on the whole situation without making his presence known so he stood just around a corner and listened. 

It was frustrating only hearing Skye’s end of the conversation. Steve kept trying to peek around the corner to get eyes on what was going on but, he needed to be careful.  
He had a feeling if he jumped in the situation right now Skye and Simmons would clam up which would make helping them even more difficult. 

When he heard a shocked voice saying, ‘Oh God.’ Repeatedly he poked around the corner one more time. He watched as Simmons dragged a clearly unconscious Sitwell out of view. Steve couldn’t help but smile. Something always seemed slightly off with that agent and more than once Steve had wanted to knock him out. 

Watching Simmons run off to presumably get one of the specialists, Steve chose to stay and watch as Skye worked through the system. He marveled at how quickly she gained access to all the information she needed. 

It wasn’t hard to miss the shock and fear in her voice when she next spoke. “Oh my God. There’s no extraction.” 

Steve’s blood ran cold. Yet another SHIELD lie. The moment he turned the corner to actually speak with Skye was the same that Coulson appeared before her roughly closing the computer Skye was using and in a cold voice ask, “What did I tell you?” 

She gave just as good as she got, “You told me to trust the system and the system sent Ward and Fitz in there to die.” 

In the silent moment between Coulson and seething Skye, Steve made his move. He moved around the corner and stood behind Skye. “Same ol’ SHIELD, huh Coulson?” 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

Skye jumped at the sudden sound of another person’s voice from behind her. To say she was shocked that it was none other than Captain America would a wild understatement. She had seen him earlier but, she would have never imagined that he would step into the mess she had created or that he would say anything but the SHIELD motto of trust the system. 

Coulson was shocked into complete stillness. There had been no contact with any of the Avengers since the fall of the Chitauri and being confronted by Steve Rogers while trying to handle his rule breaking hacker certainly complicated matters. Coulson did his best to keep his tone modulated, “It’s been awhile, Captain.” 

Steve narrowed his eyes and glared at the man he once believed to be dead. “Well, faking your death tends to make communication difficult.” 

The agent had the good sense to look contrite at the thinly veiled insult. Instead of diving into that mess at the moment Coulson decided to try reasoning with his hacker, “I told you I would get you answers about your family.” 

The calm tone did nothing to curb Skye’s anger, “That’s not what I was looking for! I was trying to find out what is happening to Ward and Fitz.” 

“That’s a classified operation-,“ Coulson began. 

“No, it’s a suicide mission!” Skye shouted in Coulson’s face. “I saw it all. The troop placements, the aerial assault. Once Ward and Fitz disable that device there is going to be a huge attack on the compound. WITH NO EXTRACTION PLAN! And you hid that from us.” 

Hearing this made the glare Steve was tossing in Coulson’s direction much worse. His voice became like chipped ice when he growled, “What?” 

Skye and Coulson both glanced at him. She could see a muscle in his jaw twitching and almost feel the anger radiating from the Avengers stance. Instinctually, she went to take a slight step away from him. However, she didn’t get far when she felt his warm hand ghost down her back. Steve looked down at her and she saw something shift in his eyes. The anger was still there but so was a kindness. 

When Steve caught Skye shifting away from him in his peripheral vision his gut screamed in protest. He wasn’t quite willing to let this girl get away from him so fast. He relaxed his aggressive position and uncrossed his arms. Reaching over to run a comforting hand down Skye’s back was almost instinctual and it successfully stopped her retreat. 

This exchange went unnoticed by Coulson because he was too busy trying think of a way to get out of this situation as he was glancing around realizing there were in a relatively public area and the way this conversation was heading, “Skye we can discuss this in private.” 

The implication that Coulson was trying to keep him out of the conversation was not lost on Steve and it only added fuel to the burning curiosity, “Oh no, I think this is a discussion I very much want to be a part of, Agent Coulson.” 

It was clear that Steve would not be giving an inch of leeway on the matter. Coulson sighed but tried to defend his position, “I didn’t hide anything from you. You don’t have the clearance to know there is no extraction.” 

Steve laughed darkly, “Don’t you guys ever get tired of using that excuse?” 

“And is that really what SHIELD is all about? Level 5s are more expendable than level 8s? Is that what I am to you, what we are to you, just another number?” Skye added her opinion to Steve’s. The hurt tone of her voice causing both men to wince. 

Coulson tried to move closer to Skye but she shrank back, inadvertently bringing her closer to Steve’s side. Again, Steve’s instincts told him she needed comfort so he gently moved his hand to rest on her the small of her back. It was meant to be simply a silent sign of support but, he felt the tingle of excitement from actually getting to touch Skye. 

“If SHIELD keeps a secret from you, it’s for a good reason.” Coulson looked into both Steve and Skye’s eyes in an attempt to convey sincerity. 

It was Steve who argued back. “So SHIELD can keep all the secrets. Should we talk about what happened the last time this organization played that little game?” 

Tension was multiplying exponentially between the three with every sentence. Coulson’s voice became flat and cold. “She just hacked a level 8 secure server, saw operational plans that she has no context for. And if details get out about this, the whole operation could become compromised, endangering the lives of thousands. Including the lives of Agents Fitz and Ward.” 

Skye cut off the retort Steve was preparing to throw at Coulson, “I know. Those are two people I care about. On the plane you’re always telling me think outside the box. 

So that exactly what I did. I went off book to watch my team’s back. Because that what you taught me to do.” 

Steve saw a look of pride flash on Coulson’s face before returning to a neutral expression. “But our team can go off book because there is a book. We have an organization to watch our backs. You claim you want to be a part of that. Do you?

Skye’s answer was immediate and emphatic. “Yes.” 

This time she stayed relatively still when Coulson took a slight step toward her but, she did press into Steve’s hand a tiny bit more. “Someday I may have to you with a secret and I’ll need to count on you to keep it.” 

Sensing that this conversation would only go in circles if he continued to press, Coulson turned to leave. When he was a few feet away Skye called out his name and asked if she could have one more answer. “What?” 

“Did you know there was no extraction plan for Fitz and Ward?” 

Coulson looked down at his feet for a moment. “That’s classified.” 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

His mind was furiously trying to catch up on the bomb the hacker had just dropped on him. Coulson had allowed two members of his team to walk into a death trap because he failed to ensure that an extraction had been put in place. It was a rookie mistake not to back check what a strange agent had planned. 

Skye had every right to be upset and distrustful. The more he considered everything she had said, the more Coulson began to agree with her assessment. Ensuring the safety of the team was more important that levels and compartmentalization. With that realization he stormed into the East Operation Center prepared to give a Hand a piece of his mind. 

The agent in question approached him as soon as he came into her view, “Agent Sitwell is in the infirmary. Apparently, a member of your team rendered him unconscious.” 

Coulson did not appreciate having to defend his position when it should be her that offered explanations. “A simple misunderstanding, I will handle the matter internally.”  
“Tranquilizing an agent doesn’t qualify as a misunderstanding. “ 

If Coulson wasn’t so upset Agent Hand’s cool tone may have impressed him. As it stood, hearing it only baited him further. “You’re right. But being told there was an extraction plan in place when in fact there isn’t… That does.” 

He paused to let Hand absorb the fact that her lie had been discovered. “I’m level 8. I am entitled to information regarding the welfare of my team. You should have been honest with me.” 

Hand gave no indication that his words had any effect, “It seems I didn’t have to and what would that knowledge have changed anyway? You yourself have designed dozens of operations like this. You know how it works.” 

“Usually with an extraction plan.” Coulson’s voice rose. 

“Barton, Romanoff… They never have an extraction plan-“ 

“They know that going in! They are trained for that. My engineer is not!” Coulson yelled. 

Hand nodded, “Agent Fitz is unproven in the field and knowing may have made him lose focus or courage.” 

“That should have been my call, not yours.” 

She couldn’t disagree with Coulson’s words but she still felt she had made the right call, “I wasn’t sure you would comply.” 

Coulson looked at her confused before she added, “Your team includes an electronically tagged non agent who is notorious for leaking secrets. Which reminds me, how did you come across this information again?” 

When he thought about the situation from Hand’s perspective he could somewhat understand what made her choose to keep the lack of extraction to herself. It didn’t matter though, his team was his. “I know what the safety of a thousand men is worth. I know the importance of taking out the overkill device out of play. But I also know my men and what they are worth. The decision to go in should have been there’s to make. Not yours.” 

The venom in Coulson’s voice made Hand take an involuntary step back. “Perhaps. But you need to trust the system, Agent Coulson.” 

For the first time, hearing about trusting the system sounded wrong. Coulson couldn’t figure out why. 

A/N: Read & Review pretty please!


	3. The Rescue

A/N: I still don’t own the characters. 

Chapter Three 

Steve stopped Skye from following Coulson as he walked away by moving his hand from her back to gently grasping her arm. “Let’s just give him a little while. Okay?” 

Now that the confrontation was over the idea that Steve Rogers was currently holding her arm and talking to her, hit Skye like a Mac truck. She looked at him with wide eyes and nodded unable to find her voice. Then he added, “But we can go find the other girl and the rest of your team. They need to know what you found out.” 

He gently pulled Skye along by her hand toward where the security officer had said Coulson’s command was docked figuring that was where they were most likely to encounter the others. It struck him that he hadn’t stopped touching Skye since he first put his hand on her back. It was surprising even to himself but he found that he wasn’t quite ready to end the contact, as casual as it was. 

It took him a moment to realize that he hadn’t taken the time to actually introduce himself to Skye. He was sure she knew exactly who is was but that was no excuse for forgetting his manners. He looked over to her with a roguish smile. “I’m Steve Rogers, by the way.” 

Skye cleared her throat before smiling back a little nervously, “I figured that one out on my own.” 

Her response made Steve chuckle. He liked that she wasn’t trying to hide the fact that she recognized him like some girls did when they tried to flirt with him. When she didn’t offer anything else to the conversation Steve asked, “Are you going to tell me your name?” 

“It’s Skye.” She said quietly. Then she started to try and pull her hand from his. “I can find my team on my own, sir. I’m sure you have more important things to be doing.” 

Steve tightened his hold on Skye’s hand to keep her from darting off on her own. “First off, it’s Steve. Not sir.” He caught her eye and raised his eyebrows and waited for her to acknowledge what he said. 

She could feel her face flushing as this impossibly handsome man stared down at her. She remained quiet expecting him to say more. It took her minute to catch on that he was waiting for her to say his name instead of sir. “Fair enough…Steve. But like I said, I’m sure you have better-“ 

“Nope. I’m doing exactly what I should be doing. When beautiful, brilliant girl needs a little help nothing is more important.” He knew he was deliberately flirting with Skye but he was trying to distract her from worrying about her friends for just a few moments. It was just a bonus that she looked adorable when she blushed. 

Skye couldn’t believe that Steve Rogers, Captain America, was actually flirting with her. “Ok. Well I guess in that case, thank you. I really appreciate you sticking up for me back there.” 

Steve squeezed the hand he was still gently holding before replying, “You seemed to be handling things pretty well all your own. “ 

“I guess.” Skye laughed. “To be honest I thought ‘The Man behind the Shield’ would back… well SHIELD and all of its protocols.” 

Steve pushed open the hangar bay door before pulling Skye to a stop. “Before New York you would have been right.” He paused thinking about the argument he and Stark had about him doing something similar to what Skye did today. Though Stark went after all of SHIELDs intel not just one mission. “Then a friend of mine showed me that sometimes, secrets can be deadly.” 

Skye took a moment to really look at him then. She could see that everything that was going on in SHIELD was really taking a toll on Steve. She suddenly had the urge to comfort him somehow. The best she could do at the moment was squeeze the hand that was still holding hers much like he had just done and say, “I’m sorry. This must have brought back some really bad memories.” 

Her quiet words and gentle touch hit Steve like warm breeze. This girl was smart, stubborn, and tenacious but somehow still managed to be protective, compassionate, and warm. “Well let’s just keep the fact that Stark was right between you and me, huh? He doesn’t need his ego inflated anymore.” 

The deflection made Skye laugh, which is what Steve had been hoping for. Just as he was about to say something more their moment was again interrupted by the two other members of her team. 

“Skye! What did you find out?” The female specialist that Steve had yet to me asked directly. He couldn’t make out more from this woman expression beyond determination. She didn’t even react to the fact that he was standing with Skye’s hand still in his. 

When Simmons caught up, her face was an open book. She looked to Skye with hope which quickly morphed into shock when she recognized who else was in the middle of this conversation then curiosity when she saw that Steve had yet to let Skye’s hand go. 

Skye herself seemed a little intimated by the older agent. He guessed she assumed this would go much like the confrontation with Coulson had. “Look May, I’m sorry. I know I broke all the rules… again-“ 

May stopped Skye’s rambling just by raising her hand. “Skye, what did you find out?” 

“There’s no extraction team out there to get Ward and Fitz before they start bombing the hell out of the compound.” Skye informed May. 

The specialist face became hard as she growled, “Do you know the co ordinance?” 

Skye shook her head, “Coulson closed the laptop before I could see-“ 

Steve interrupted rattling off the location he saw on the screen in the split second before the computer had be closed. They all looked at him was surprise. “What? I saw the screen before Coulson showed up.” 

Skye smiled brightly at him and mouthed ‘Thank you.’ May just gave him a small nod. “Okay, Skye, you got us the info. Now, we react.” 

A wide smile broke out across both Skye and Simmons faces and Skye’s determined voice spurred everyone to action. “Were going to go get our guys.” 

The totally neutral look returned to May’s face as she turned to lead the group toward the bus, “Well somebody has to.” 

Steve looked around the hangar bay and realized they would need a distraction to get out of here with their plane before too many red flags were raised. “I’ll distract the workers here to give you guys a window out of here.”

Before Skye could board the plane Steve pulled her to a stop one more time. Suddenly nervous he faltered momentarily. She was the first to break the silence. “What’s up?” 

He stared at her for a few seconds before quickly pulling out the notebook he kept lists of cultural references in from out of his pocket and quickly scribbled down his phone number. “Here. Let me know when you all have completed the rescue, okay?” 

Skye nodded and slipped the paper in her pocket before grabbing the notebook from his hand. When she saw the list he was compiling it was his turn to blush. “Yea, that. I’m trying to catch up on some of the stuff I missed while I was… you know…” 

“Maybe I could help add some stuff for you, huh?” Skye smiled up at him. 

“I’d like it if you did.” Then he watched as she flipped to the next available page and wrote down her phone number. Steve couldn’t help but feel a bit relieved. Now, he wouldn’t have to wait anxiously for her to contact him. 

For a moment the pair just stood looking at each other. Neither ready to end the moment just yet. Skye finally broke out into a wide grin before stepping closer before rising to her tip toes to press a gentle kiss to Steve’s cheek. “Thank you again.” 

Then she walked over to join with the members of her team as they walked into the cargo bay and he just watched for a moment. He heard   
Simmons asking if they could really pull this off with just three people, he knew they could do it but he wished they would have a little more support. Steve was pleasantly surprised when he heard Coulson’s voice, “Four is better.” 

The two men that had worked together previously met one another’s eyes. Steve raised an eyebrow as a silent question. When Coulson nodded, Steve knew that Coulson was on board with however the girls planned to safe the other two members of his team. 

Steve jogged off to go create the diversion for them to slip through. Easiest way for a plane to stay off SHIELDs radar… temporarily disrupt SHIELDs radar. 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

When they guys were all safely back on the bus the team congregated in the cargo bay to welcome them back. Ward reached out to shake his leader’s hand, “Thanks for coming to get us, sir.”   
There was a meaningful glance between Coulson and Skye before he replied, “We take of our own.” 

Ward looked up to see May heading back to cockpit and nodded solemnly. He assumed she was the one who demanded the rescue. After all the Calvary never left a man behind if she could help it. 

In the lab, Simmons was trying to casually greet Fitz back when she really wanted to throw her arms around him to reassure herself that he was indeed safely back. “Well done, Fitz. So glad you’re back.” 

“Yes. It’s good to see you too.” 

An awkward silence enveloped the duo. Thus mission was the longest they had been apart since they started at the Academy. “Oh. The sandwich? How was it?” When Fitz didn’t immediately say something she pressed on. “Too much aioli?” 

Fitz looked over to Ward for a moment. After the specialist sent him a respectful nod quietly said, “No, it was delicious. I’m just a bit tired.” 

Simmons nodded and helped Fitz carry the dismantled overkill core into the lab before Fitz continued. “ I had Wards back out there the whole time. I pretty much saved him from a Russian mod with the EMP I found then kicked a few rebels head in.” 

He liked the way Simmons look at him with pride shining through her eyes. In an effort to keep up the cool façade, “But enough about mission talk…Did anything exciting happen while you were in the Hub?” 

Nearly bouncing with her exciting tale Simmons answer came out in a rush. “I shot a superior officer in the chest and we met Captain America!”

Fitz stared at his partner. She had to be joking. 

Back in the cargo bay out of ear shot from the rest of the team, Skye walked over to join Ward and playfully punched him in the shoulder before joking, “You know for a second there I thought I’d have to find a new S.O.” 

Ward barely glanced at his rookie, instead keeping an eye on Fitz. He had really proven himself in the field and Ward was just a bit proud. “Well, sorry to disappoint.” 

The two stood a moment longer Skye feeling oddly awkward since Ward barely seemed to realize she was there. After a few more moments he interrupted her thoughts, “I’m beat. Training tomorrow at 0500, rookie. Don’t be late.” 

Skye watched Ward’s retreating back as he went up the stairs to the living quarters feeling oddly let down. She supposed she shouldn’t have expected a thank you from the robot considering she did break a lot of SHIELDs rules. However, she had hoped for some small sign that he appreciated her efforts to help him. 

As she stood still letting the sad thoughts swirl around in her mind, Skye felt her phone vibrate in her back pocket. 

'I hope you were able to get your team to safety. I wish we could have met under better circumstances. Maybe next time we run into each other we could grab some coffee?'

This message could only be from Steve. Reading his message reminded her about how warm his hand been and how comforting he was this afternoon. They hadn’t gotten to talk a great deal but she couldn’t deny there seemed to be a connection there. 

It took her a moment to build up the courage to respond. 'Our wayward warriors have been safely retrieved. Thank you again for your help today and I would love to get coffee. You could even pick my brain for additions to your list!' 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

Back at the Hub, Steve read Skye’s message several times before putting his phone in the pocket of his leather coat and climbing on to his beloved bike. He smiled as he remember the gentle kiss Skye had given him on the cheek. It looked like he was finally take Nat’s advice and putting himself back out there.

A/N: That’s the end of The Hub. Unfortunately, not the last you’ll see of Agent Hand. But I do have something special running around my head for her. Next up will be closer look at growing tension in Skye’s relationship with Ward, while she and Steve continue talking. Also, as promised a couple of the Avengers will be making an appearance on Steve’s end of the story.


	4. Finding Pieces

A/N: Nope, still don’t own them. 

Chapter Four

The team had been ordered to help aide in the clean-up process from Earth’s latest adventure with the other realms. It was tedious work sifting through all the wreckage to separate the things that were alien before they landed in the wrong hands. 

Ward pushed a large bucket of junk over to where Fitz was currently crouched digging through rocks and debris, then he dumped the new pile on the lot that was already there. “Don’t say I never gave you anything.” 

Fitz grumbled looking at all the work that still need to be done. “Checking for alien spectrographic signature one teeny rock at a time.” 

“It’s a necessary precaution. We don’t want anything alien falling into the wrong hands.” Ward reminded the techs in the room. 

Ward tuned out the two scientist babbling when Coulson, May, and Skye’s voices came close enough to make out what they were saying. Skye was still trying to process that Asgardians weren’t actually Gods. “You guys may think this is old news but it’s new news to everybody else. Asgardians are just aliens from another planet that visited Earth thousands of years ago.”

“Or more.” Coulson added. “That’s where our Norse mythology comes from.” 

Wards rookie seemed to consider this for a moment, “That’s too crazy. Do you think other deities are aliens too? Vishnu for sure, right?”   
Coulson glanced around the room and then grumbled, “It would be nice if for once Thor and his people sent down the God of cleaning up after yourself. They probably just have a magic broom for this sort of thing.” 

“I just wish they’d left their alien ship behind.” Skye said looking out the windows where the giant ship had once rested. 

May snorted and looked at her like she’d lost her mind. “So we could clean that up too?”

Skye looked to May and elaborated, “So we could go inside. Take a peek under the hood. Take it for a spin.” When May still looked at her skeptically she added, “Come on you’re telling me that piloting an alien ship isn’t on your bucket list?” 

The older woman seemed to consider this for a moment before sharing a look with Skye. 

“I can’t think of a single time when anything alien in human hands ended well.” 

Skye looked at Coulson before saying, “I wouldn’t mind getting my human hands on Thor. He’s so dreamy.” 

Coulson scoffed, “Sure, he’s handsome but-“ 

“No, he’s dreamy.” May interrupted. But then turned and flashed a very rare smile to Skye before teasing her, “And I thought since your little encounter at the Hub you’d be more interested in getting your hands on Captain America, Skye.”

Ward looked up at that new tidbit. He hadn’t been told about an encounter with Captain America but he could see how flushed Skye’s face had gotten at just the mention of his name. Ward mentally groaned considering all the embarrassing things Skye could have done if she’d actually met the Avenger. 

Skye attempted to try and mimic May’s disapproving glare. When that failed she childishly stuck her tongue out at the agent. Since the Hub the two very stubborn women had been making more of an effort to get to know one another. Still watching this small exchange managed to shock the team into silence. 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

Steve had been staying in the Avengers Tower that Tony built after the Battle of New York. It made sense for the team to have a base of operations in the same location even if not all were always in the residence at the same time. When he finished his morning workout routine, Steve made his way to the kitchen and found both Tony and Clint were already up and digging into a breakfast buffet. 

“Well good morning, Gramps.” Tony cheerily called out when he spotted Steve. While Clint silently waved his hand as a greeting.

It had taken Steve a fair amount of time to get past the vaguely insulting nicknames Tony called everyone. After it had sparked a particularly intense argument one evening Pepper finally stepped in and let Steve in on the secret. Tony only did that with the people he really cared for. Having grown up in house that Tony had, he had never really learned how to express his feeling like an adult instead of a teenage boy. 

“Morning, Stark.” Steve said as he moved to snag a few pancakes. 

The three men ate in relative silence for a short time. This generally meant that Pepper was out of town so Tony had been up all night tinkering with the new suits he was putting together. It was a long process since he chosen to wipe them out after the incident with Aldrich Killian. Clint was usually fairly quiet in the mornings unless Natasha was also here teasing him about one thing or another. 

There had been many mornings when Steve was here that he would have loved to enjoy his breakfast in this kind of peace. Today was different. He could really use the distraction of conversation to stop him from constantly checking or fiddling with his phone.

Simply put he was anxious to hear from Skye again. She had let him know that they were headed over to London to help clean up more of the mess Thor left behind and that she would try to let him know how it went. He received a few sporadic texts and two short phone calls. It was odd that in such a short amount of time Steve found himself really looking forward to their conversations but Skye was funny and had the ability to pull Steve out of some of his more dark moods without even realizing she was doing so. 

Both Clint and Tony noticed that Steve seemed to be staring at his phone that placed on the table when he sat down before picking it up and fiddling with it. While most people wouldn’t consider someone using their phone at the table a sign that something was up both men had heard Steve’s rants against this generation’s constant attachment to their ‘new gadgets’ many times.

Tony slapped Clint on the arm and signaled him to try and figure out what was up. While he and Cap had moved past most of the issues from their first meeting, he still couldn’t see Steve opening up to him. 

“Steve…Steve…Cap,” Clint tried to get his attention but got nothing. Sighing, Clint reached to grab a muffin from one of the plates in the middle of the table and threw it at his friend making a direct hit to his forehead.

That worked, Steve immediately raised his head and glared at Clint, “What was that for?” 

“We were concerned your hearing’s going in your old age.” Tony joked. “Robin Hood called your name three times.” 

“Oh.” Steve looked away bashfully. “Sorry, what’s up?” 

Clint gave Steve a pointed look. “We were wondering the same thing. What’s up with you?”

Steve paused for a moment to consider if he really wanted to share the more personal details of his life at the moment. With one last look at his phone, he decided a little advice on wooing girls nowadays couldn’t hurt. “I, uh, I ran into Coulson after I got done with my last assignment.” 

“Nat told us he was back up and running. I guess Fury was too stubborn to let his man go.” Clint mumbled around a bite of oatmeal. 

“That seems to be the running theory, anyway. Fury yelled at Coulson until he decided not to die.” Tony laughed picturing it in his head.

Steve cleared his throat before continuing. “Yea, well he’s got this new team now and….” 

“And……?” Tony pressed. 

It was the archer that put the pieces together. “You met a girl!” He exclaimed pointing his spoon at Steve. 

“Is it that obvious?” Steve groaned, put his face in his hands.

Tony and Clint both shrugged before Tony said, “All the signs are there. New obsession with your phone. Fidgety embarrassment. Yup, pretty obvious now that ya mention it.” Stark commented to Clint.

“Did she turn ya down?” Clint questioned. 

“What? No. I mean I didn’t actually ask… We just exchanged phone numbers before she left to help pull some teammates out of an aerial assault.” Steve defended. 

The other men at the table laughed at their friend’s flustered expression. “You’ve got it bad!” Tony continued laughing. 

After they had gotten a few more jokes in, Steve filled them in on how he’d met Skye. Both of them took a few minutes to process the story before Tony finally asked, “Wait, this girl got around a SHIELD tracker and managed to hack into an active mission from a level 8 secure server? From inside the Hub itself? Using a laptop and decoy?” 

Steve nodded and added, “In under three minutes.” 

Tony and Clint shared a look. And said at the same time, “We have to meet her.” 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

The team didn’t have to stay in London for long before they were ordered to investigate an unnatural murder that had taken place in Norway. A witness told authorities that a couple had cut down a tree and when confronted by parks services a small woman carrying a silver stick threw a man four times her size over fifty feet away. 

Simmons had been outfitted with a harness to climb up and get a closer look at the area that the stick seemed to be taken from. She was still a bit nervous to be up so high because of what happened a few weeks previously. 

Ward tried to alleviate some of the scientists concern, “I can climb up there if you want. You would just have to talk me through what to do with the doodads.” Glancing up to where the tree had been split, he added, “It’s only about fifteen feet.” 

Taking a deep calming breath, Simmons looked over to her friend, “I’ll be fine. Im just a bit more wary about the height thing since falling to a certain death.” 

He knew that was what was to blame for Simmons’ hesitance. “You’re afraid. Shaken up. It’s normal.” Reaching up a hand to offer a little more stability and comfort as she took a few steps forward. “But some feelings will take over if you dwell on them, especially fear. Now just keep your eyes ahead and focus on what you like to do best.” 

“Yep. Not falling.” She said a little breathlessly. 

“No research. You’re a scientist. You like to figure things out.” Ward corrected. 

The two remained quiet as she continued up the tree and began scanning the site. Moments later her equipment started beeping confirming what the team already suspected. “Whatever was in here was definitely not from this world.” 

Through the comms Fitz added, “The spectrograph signature readings match reading from Thor’s hammer. Whatever was up there was Asgardian.” 

“Oh I can see an imprint of what was embedded. I’ll scan for three dimensional restoration.” Simmons chirped when she discover the impression.   
After a few more moments of discussion between Fitz and Simmons, she was ready to come down. Ward did his best to distract her, “Did you and Skye happen to run into anyone special at the Hub?” 

Simmons looked at Ward a bit confused. She had assumed Skye filled Ward in on the assistance they had received from Captain America. “Yes, actually we did. Or rather, Skye did. I was off fetching May so I didn’t actually run into him. He just walked Skye back to the plane and then distracted the controllers and temporarily disabled SHIELDs radars at the Hub so we could have a little time to slip out and get to you and Fitz.” 

Throughout that entire rant, Simmons still didn’t say who the ‘he’ she was referring to was. “Who are you talking about, Simmons?” 

“Oh Steve Rogers, of course. I really thought Skye would have told you.” Simmons hopped off the stump and turned to face Ward. “He really was very helpful and kind.” 

Ward watched as Simmons walked over to wait in the car for the others to finish taking statements from the witness leaving him to wonder what really happened in the Hub while he and Fitz were out on the mission and how the Captain America came to be involved involved. 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

After the team returned to the bus armed with at least an idea of what they were dealing with thanks their meeting with a Norse mythology professor, Skye stood alone in the command center of the bus digging into other possible locations based on the text that was riddled with clues.   
There were a lot of places that the Vikings invaded so the list of possible locations was not a short one. She kept trying to figure out a way to narrow the search down. Her brain was sifting through all the information but the more she researched the more confused and frustrated she became. 

Hearing her phone snapped her out of her daze and she answered it without bothering to check the caller ID, she assumed it would be either Coulson or Ward demanding answers, “Look, I’m doing my best here but the Vikings weren’t exactly stay at home a knit kind of people.” 

“Well, that is an interesting fact. I will be sure to pass on your assessment to Thor next time talk to him.” Steve chuckled. 

“Oh God! I thought it was Ward calling to try and pry answers from me!” Skye rushed to explain the unusual greeting. 

Steve would be willing to bet that Skye’s face was adorably displaying how flustered she seemed right now. The mental picture made him smile, “I’m just calling to warn you that I may have told Stark about what happened at the Hub and now he’s starting to demand a meeting with. I’m going to take this opportunity to offer my sincerest apologies in advance for when he makes that happen.” 

That was certainly not what Skye was expecting. The Tony Stark wanted to meet her. This couldn’t be happening. “You’re joking, aren’t you?” 

“Nope. Not joking. He keeps saying something about letting you have a go at his systems to make sure he doesn’t have… to be honest, I don’t know what he was saying but, I think he may be planning to fly over there and kidnap you if you guys take too much longer.” Steve told her very seriously.

Skye laughed at the odd turn her life was making. A year ago she was a faceless hacktivist and now Captain America was warning her that Ironman was planning to kidnap her and let her play with his computer systems. She briefly considered pinching herself to make sure this wasn’t a dream. “Umm I think were heading to DC once we locate the rest of this Asgardian magic stick. I overheard Coulson talking about meetings in the Triskelion.” 

Excitement rushed through Steve. If she was going to DC, he could try a swing getting that coffee with her. Then he considered everything else she’d just said. “Magic stick?” 

It took her a few minutes to explain the situation that the team was dealing with and where they were planning to try and find the missing pieces of the berserker staff. When she finished her story Steve was quiet. A staff that made people insanely angry and more powerful sounded like a very serious issue. “I’ll see if I can get in touch with Thor. Maybe he could help point you guys in the right direction.” 

“Oh! That would be fantastic!” Skye exclaimed. She had jokingly asked if Coulson planned on seeing if Thor could be of any help but she hadn’t even thought to ask Steve. “I mean you don’t have to but it would be great to have a little more to go on than what we have so far.” 

“It’s not a problem. I’m happy to help you in any way I can.” Smiling Steve added on, “As long as we get that cup of coffee you promised me.”

There it was again. Skye was pretty sure that Steve was flirting with her and she couldn’t help but notice that her heart had sped up with the thought. “Wait, you mean I get help and a coffee date? How can a girl refuse?” 

“I’m hoping she doesn’t.” 

Even though it was impossible for Steve to see her nodding Skye couldn’t help it. “You’ve got yourself a deal.” 

Steve was elated that she’d said yes. He may not have asked her out for a traditional date but getting coffee was certainly progress. “I’d better hurry up and get that intel for you before you change your mind on me. I’ll let you know when I hear back from Thor.” 

As soon as he ended the call with Skye he dialed Jane Fosters’ number. Thor had been laying low with her since the incident in London and not many people could reach him. “Hey Jane! It’s Steve, could you ask Thor about something called a berserker staff for me, please?”

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

It only took Steve about half an hour to text Skye a less well known Viking raid site, she was pleasantly surprised to discover they were already in position thanks to Coulson’s connection to the mythology professor. According to Thor one particular raid was actually led by Asgardians themselves so it would make sense to start the search here. 

As she was pulling up more information Coulson and Ward made their way to the command center complaining about coming up with zilch from the good professor’s suggestion, ”Do you know what’s not on Mt. Thor? Anything Asgardian.” Coulson stood next to Skye and asked, “What about you? Any luck finding something to help?”

“Nystrom’s message boards are just a buzz with psychos talking about ascending to become gods of death and destruction. People suck, sir.” Skye led with the bad news. She thought it was important to know that the group that rioted in Oslo was only gaining more members. 

Ward scoffed, “That’s your progress? ‘People suck’?” He had expected more from Skye. 

She looked at him a little irked that he was impatiently rushing her opportunity to show and tell, “These people do.” Shifting her focus back to Coulson, “There’s also chatter about going underground.” 

Again Ward interrupted, “Could mean going incognito-“ 

“Or a clue about where they are searching for the next piece.” It was Ward’s turn to have his thought cut off.   
If they were going to get ahead of this group they needed to figure out where they were headed, “Randolph said to check Viking routes. Have you managed to find any others?” 

Skye nodded and pulled up the interactive map she had been tagging the locations that had the highest chance of being a match. “I did. There are some sites along the Volga River in Russia, others in Kiev, and funnily enough here. In Seville, Spain.” 

Both sets of eyes looked at her a bit shocked. “Here? In Seville?” 

“Turns out the Vikings sacked Seville twice.” Skye nodded and zoomed in on the city. “In fact, one of those raids was actually lead by Asgardians.”   
Coulson nodded, easily accepting her assessment. But Ward was skeptical, “How would you know that? Yesterday you were shocked that they weren’t gods. Now you know they were in Spain?” 

Ward’s open doubt of the intel she gathered was a little hurtful but before she could say anything to defend herself May stepped in, “I'm sure she has her sources, Agent Ward.” May immediately defended the younger girl. Skye had never given them bad intel, even if she didn't tell them the whole truth what she did tell them was always useful. “We found a specific promising location with Viking relics. El Divino Nino. It’s a church built on the ruins of an 8th century crypt that was built on Roman ruins from 206BC.” 

“East of a river.” Ward added. 

“And lots of bones. Let’s see what we can dig up.” Coulson made contact with the agents in the room. “See what I did there?”

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

The team decided that the church needed to be search as soon as possible. So it was Skye and Ward that were sent down the tunnels while May questioned the priest that ran the church. Ward was some what less than thrilled at the tight fit in the underground hallway. He kept having to duck his head to miss cob webs and other disgusting things. Through his ear comm Coulson asked, “How are you doing, Agent Ward?” 

“Wishing I was shorter. Other than that. Nothing yet. All my readings are normal.” He grumbled. The lack of a snarky comment from his rookie made him momentarily uneasy. “What about you, Skye? Any luck?” 

“Well, I’m lucky my S.O. volunteered to take the super creepy hallway instead of the slightly less creepy dungeon room…place.” Ward smiled and shook his head at her response. Leave it to her to make a joke while underground in a crypt, searching for a dangerous alien staff. “Other than that…I got nothing.” 

After a few quiet moments the device in Ward’s hand started beeping and Fitz’s voice sounded alarmed in his ear, “Ward, your spectrograph is reading something near you.” 

He began frantically looking around, “I don’t see anything.” 

“Well, it’s right in front of you.” Still Ward saw nothing. “Oh wait, no, uh, ok hold on… It’s moving northwest.” 

Ward whipped around and caught movement down another part of the hallway. “I have visual.” 

It took a few seconds for Ward to catch the figure that had been running away. When he pushed the man’s body up against a wall and got a look at his face, Ward was momentarily shocked. Apparently Professor Randolph knew part of the staff was here all along and had attempted to send them on a wild goose chase. The smaller man raised his hands and stuttered, “I have a wonderful explanation.” 

Shaking his head, Ward started to fill the team and take possession of the piece of the staff clearly sticking out of the professor’s bag. “I ran into something unexpected-“ 

The second his hand closed over the staff it felt as if Ward’s entire body was engulfed in flames. And for a second he was back at his family home looking down a dark hole in the ground with his little brother’s voice screaming his name. The image brought him to his knees and made his heart race madly. 

Skye had heard the small groan in her comm and started moving to last point her tablet has displayed for Ward. She barely heard Coulson talking to her, “Skye, can you-“ 

“I’m already on it.” She cut him off and rounded the corner to see Ward laying on the ground. She couldn’t tell if he was breathing. Skye rushed to his side, “Ward!” 

As soon as her hand touched Ward’s shoulder he jerked back to consciousness clearly panicking about something. With his training he didn’t think before he swung out, instinctually trying to protect himself from what his mind believed to be a threat. He didn’t recognize Skye until it was too late and his elbow had already connected with her cheek with enough force to throw her back into the wall. 

Still he looked around panicked, it took Skye’s voice to really break through the haze, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, Grant! Calm down. Please, just calm down.” 

Ward’s eyes locked onto her. He took a few deep breaths trying to slow his pounding heart and kept his eyes on Skye. “The staff… Professor has it.” 

After a few seconds of silence Skye moved over to him while filling in the team, “Something is wrong with Ward.” She shifted and wrapped his arm around her shoulders to try and help him stand. “The staff, he said the professor took it.” 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

Several hours after Steve had passed on the limited information from Thor he sat in his apartment trying to distract himself by reading. Usually he could bury himself in the words on the page and it was a brief respite from considering all the things he has missed. This evening it wasn’t as effective though. 

Since Thor had more clearly explained what the berserker staff was capable of Steve found it nearly impossible to shake his worry for Skye and her team off. They were going after a group that believed in destroying the world and were willing to use alien artifacts to do it. When his phone rang he grabbed it up hoping it was Skye checking in. He was a little disappointed to see Jane’s name instead. 

Before Steve could even offer up a greeting he heard Thor’s voice instead of Jane’s. “My good captain, have you any news about those foul humans?” 

It wasn’t surprising that Thor had also taken a personal interest in situation with the staff. After all these people were using Asgardian relics to terrorize Earth. “Nothing yet. I passed on your intel and asked for an update as soon as possible. Skye still hasn’t checked back in yet, though.” 

“You sound worried, my friend. Do you believe something has gone wrong?” There was genuine concern in Thor’s voice. 

Steve sighed and began pacing as he spoke, “I’ll be worried until I hear from Skye again. I think she has a habit of getting into trouble.” 

Thor laughed at his friend’s explanation, “It would seem to me that many of us are guilty of that. Rest easy until you are given a reason to doubt her safety. Phil, Son of Coul has never struck me as a leader that unduly risks members of his team.” Even though Thor was unable to see Steve’s doubtful expression, he sensed Steve’s disbelief. “He is more apt to place himself in harm’s way than another.” 

Both men thought back to how bravely Coulson had confronted Loki. While it was true that Coulson may not be transparent with his plans, it was also true that he would never knowingly risk someone’s safety if he could help it. “I know, you’re right.” Steve sighed. 

“You care for the Lady Skye?” Thor broke the silence and asked his friend. Steve’s loneliness was a topic that was much discussed among the Avengers. They all worried that he needed someone to care about and to care about him. 

Taking a moment to consider Thor’s question, Steve thought about how it had felt when he was holding her hand before she boarded her team’s plane and smiled to himself. “Yea, I do. She’s… different.” 

“Different is a good thing.” Thor said as remembered think the same thing about his Jane when they had first met.


	5. Discovering Truths

A/N: I still don't own the characters. 

A/N1: If you get a chance I'm adding a couple questions at the end of the chapter. Need some opinions please!

Chapter Five

After the incident underground the team quickly brought in Professor Randolph for questioning. While Coulson dealt with their suspect Simmons quickly checked the bruise blooming on Skye’s cheek and Fitz set up the testing equipment that would be needed to assess what had happened to Ward. 

Being trapped in the lab, not actively working the case was grating on Ward’s nerves. He didn’t need to have the science twins fawning over him. He was fine and now Nystrom had two pieces of the Asgardian rage stick. Looking up at Simmons, he ground out, “This is ridiculous.”   
“It’s anything but. Ward, you passed out and struck Skye when she found you.” She looked up from her tablet and emphasized, “And now you’re acting…Not right.” 

Ward looked across the lab where Skye was standing near Fitz. Even with the ice pack she was holding to her cheek he could see the still darkening bruise. Knowing that he was the cause of it made Ward’s heart clench and anger at the professor boil in his blood.   
For the first time since exiting the tunnels Skye spoke directly to him, “Touching the staff caused this, right?” 

He looked away and nodded. The longer he looked at her face, the longer he saw the damage he’d done to his rookie… the sicker he felt. He had been trying to teach her to protect herself from potential threats. At the time he hadn’t considered that she would need to physically protect herself from him. 

Simmons’ kind voice brought him back to the present, “Any residual effects? Are you exhibiting any extra strength?” 

Casting his eyes at the security feed to the interrogation room, he growled, “Why don’t I find out on that guy?” 

Everyone seemed to collectively ignore his comment and carry on asking other questions. Fitz’s question was next, “What’s the last thing you remember before you lost consciousness?” 

There was no way Ward was going to discuss what he’d seen. Ever. “This is a waste of time.” He looked at Skye hoping she would back him up. “We need to find the staff.” 

“What exactly did you remember, Ward?” Fitz persisted. 

Ward hung his head to avoid looking at anyone. Just because they weren’t going to let this go didn’t mean he was going to answer. He stood and yanked his arm out the blood pressure cuff. When he faced the screen on the wall and effectively blocked the others from seeing his face he responded quietly, “Just something I hadn’t thought about in a long time.” 

Skye could see the strain on Wards face and realized that maybe pressing this subject in front of everyone wasn’t the best course of action. “Guys, why don’t we just leave this alone for now?” 

“He just pulled his arm out of my-“ 

“QUIET!” Ward yelled, then forcefully turned up the volume. “I want to hear this.” 

They all heard Coulson leading the professor, “Two of my people are hurt and the staff is gone.” 

Randolph had the decency to look slightly ashamed, “I didn’t want any of that to happen.” 

“Well, what did you want?” The agent’s voice was angry. “The staff’s power for yourself?” 

The professor shook his head before vocally answering, “No. Nothing like that. I just wanted to be the first to get a chance to study it. To prove that the berserkers were actually here. I wanted to be apart of that history. Think about that-“ 

The screen cut out and Ward turned to glare at Simmons. “What are you doing?” 

Seeing the expression on the specialist’s face scared Simmons and she took a slight step back, “Your heart rate is rising adrenaline is spiking. You need to calm down, not get worked up.” 

A tense silence took over the room. Skye stepped over and tried to reach out to him. Thinking that maybe talking about all the emotions that were clearly swirling in his eyes would help, “Ward, the memory you saw… Was it about your brother?” 

He raised his eyes to Skye’s. For one moment he really did want to open up and tell her what he had seen. But this close the bruise he’d put on her face looked so much worse and made him sick to his stomach. Ward had taken enough out on her today, he didn’t need to add to it, “Drop it.” 

Skye nodded but gently covered one of his hands that were fisted on the table top, “Ok but, if you need to get it out…I am here.” 

Her touch sent shivers up his arm, he could smell the warm vanilla lotion she used that sometimes made Ward consider if her skin itself would taste like sugar cookies. The fact that she had slipped passed all his defenses suddenly made him burn with anger. He couldn’t care about her. He had a job to do and having feelings would get in the way of that. “Yea right, to talk.” He snarled at her. “Because that’s what you do. Talk and talk. Don’t you ever get tired of hearing the sound of your own voice?” 

Once he started, the words to push her away just seemed to tumble out of his mouth. Ward kept his eyes on Skye as she looked at him like he had just struck her... again. The look in her eyes silencing him as some part of his mind screamed at him to apologize. 

“Oh well, this makes more sense.” Simmons stepped in between Ward and Skye as they continued to stare at one another. “What you’re experiencing, Ward, this feeling, it’s just chemistry.” 

Skye’s eyes still held his, “I hope so.” 

Simmons extended the reading on her tablet for Skye to look at as evidence, even though they both knew it would still need to be explained. “Yes, see, spikes in his adrenocorticotropic hormone levels. It’s like those stories you hear about a mother is able to lift a car to save her baby…” 

Ward moved to stand in front of Simmons and point at her findings, “Stop talking. Just fix it.” 

“I wish I could.” Simmons looked at him apologetically. “We can relieve some of the symptoms. Im going to give you 10ccs of benzodiazepine…” 

Both Skye and Fitz began nodding, Ward needed to calm down. He saw it another way, “A sedative? That’s not gonna happen!”   
Instead of Skye being the one to speak it was Fitz, “Be reasonable. Look at how you’re behaving.” 

Ward turned and stalked toward the smaller man, “If Im sedated and we cross paths with those juiced freaks, the ones who flip cars and smash people up… are you going to take them on? Keep us safe? Or am I going to have to save Simmons’ ass…again?” 

The two men seemed to be locked in a staring contest, seeing who would break first. When the rear lab door slammed closed, Ward broke away and looked around to find that Skye was no longer in the room and Simmons was staring at him shocked at his outburst. Ward shook his head and pulled his shirt off the table before stalking off to see where his rookie went. 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

As Skye leaned against the firmly closed door to her bunk, she tried to take deep calming breaths. She kept playing what Ward had said over and over in her mind. On the one hand she understood, well sort of understood, what Simmons meant about it not being Ward. However, a small part of her truly believed that he meant what he said. That maybe the staff was like alcohol and anger. She had a tendency to believe what people told her when they were drunk or pissed off. 

She was a bit surprised to feel tears falling from her eyes. She hadn’t realized she was crying. Skye slid to the floor, wiped the tears away, and took deep breaths. This was the same thing she would do when she was in orphanage and she was trying to hide how depressed she was. After a minute or so, her heart rate returned to normal and she felt a bit calmer. 

As she considered what she should do next to help move the investigation and get it over with, she felt her phone vibrating. Remembering what happened the last time she answered without checking who the caller was she glanced at the screen. When she saw CAP with tiny emoijis of his SHIELD flanking his name, she cracked a small smile. “Heya Captain.” 

She heard him chuckle a bit before saying, “We talked about this. It’s Steve. Captain and sir… make this all sound so impersonal.”

“Alright, alright. Steve.” She conceded, for now. “We checked out the church Boy Thunder told you about.” 

“Boy Thunder?!” Steve exclaimed, “I can’t wait to hear you call him that! Did you guys find anything?” 

Skye gave him a rundown of what happened. Leaving out some of the more personal parts of the argument in the lab. Instead just telling him that Ward seemed to still be effected by what the staff did even though he was no longer holding it. 

“You’re alright though?” He questioned once she was done. 

The concern in his voice was easy to hear and the perfect antidote to how she was feeling after Ward’s outburst. “I’m good, promise. Just a little extra color to my cheek for a week or so. I’ve had worse.” 

The two talked a bit longer about nothing much in particular. Steve told her a story about one time having caught Tony being sprayed with water by one of his many robotic helpers while screaming that Nat had switched the vocal controls to Russian. 

When Skye could finally halt her laughter for more than a few seconds Steve said, “There’s that beautiful laugh. My work here is done.” 

Color bloomed on Skye’s face and she thanked him for making her feel better. He extracted another promise to check in from her before they both hung up. Skye stayed sitting on her floor for a few more moments considering how she would get him to laugh just has hard the next time they spoke. 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

It took Ward a few minutes to find where Skye had run off to. Her bunk was the last place he expected to find her. Generally, when she was upset she would either hide in the SUV, take up residence in the guest chair of Coulson’s office, or take over the holotable in the command center.   
As he stood in the hallway considering any other places she may be hiding, he heard it. Skye was in her bunk giggling. Ward moved to knock and drag her away from whatever funny video she’d found and try and make up for how he’d attacked her in the lab. He froze when he heard her obviously talking about the bruise he’s left on her cheek. 

When there was a lengthy pause it became clear that he was hearing her end of a phone conversation. Ward began considering who she could be speaking to. Skye didn’t have family and he’d rarely seen her use her phone as more than a portable computer. She had explained that most of her contacts preferred the ease of text messaging over actual calls. 

He jumped slightly when Skye was no longer silent and laughing hysterically. For a few moment he could hear her trying to speak only to dissolve into more laughter. After more than a minute of this she seemed to calm down enough Ward heard her speak, sweetly, “Thank you for that. I really needed that mental image!”

There was another slight pause before she continued, “Of course, Steve. Stop worrying so much. I promise I’ll be fine and I’ll check in soon.” 

He couldn’t figure out why but Ward felt the anger in his chest rising again at the thought of Skye turning to someone else for comfort. She’s his rookie, she should come to him first. He realized that talking to her now that he was worked up again would only make him more upset and he would probably say something else to hurt her. So he shook his head and stalked off the cargo bay. He’d try and work some of the anger off on the punching bag instead of his teammates. 

After almost forty-five minutes, Ward was still going after the punching bag. His blood was still boiling with rage. Images of his little brother desperately trying to keep his head about water and crying for help still assaulted his mind. Added to that his mind kept bringing up the image of Skye looking at him with fear in her eyes, her cheek bruised. He was so lost in the mages that he didn’t hear May’s voice calling out to him. 

When Ward felt a hand on his shoulder and reacting instinctually again by swinging. Luckily May was faster and evaded the punch. “You should be more careful.” He spat at her. 

“Im fine. You?” 

He threw another set of aggressive punches at the bag. “I’m working it out.” 

May shook her head as she assessed the other specialist, “No, you’re punching things. The last thing you need is to punch things.”

“You have a better idea?” 

She reached out again and touched his shoulder, “Let me help you.” 

Ward shook off May’s oddly gentle touch, “The only help I need is to stop those guys before they hurt somebody else.” 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

After Skye finished her call with Steve she felt a lot better so she went back down to the lab to check on Fitz and Simmons. Ward had been just as hurtful to them as he had been with her and she wanted to make sure that they were okay.   
She entered as they were discussing the other possible locations that the third piece could be and what the best way to help calm Ward down. “Hey guys.” 

Simmons looked up to her and immediately asked, “Are you alright? Ward was a bit… well he was an ass earlier and you left so suddenly…” 

“I’m fine. I was just coming down to ask you guys the same question.” Skye laughed. 

Fitz answered for both of them, “We’re good. He didn’t mean all of that. It’s just the effects of that bloody staff.” 

Skye shrugged, not totally believing it, “I hope so. But enough about that. What are you guys up to?” 

For several minutes they filled Skye in only looking for minor sounds of agreement. The conversation flowed easily, even as Skye kept a watchful eye on Ward’s figure on the other side of the glass door viciously attacking the punching bag. Before today she may have approached him asking him what the bag had done to deserve such treatment but now, she figured the last thing he wanted was to listen to her. 

She snapped out of her train of thought when she realized that Fitz was trying to get her attention. “oh um sorry… what?” 

“Simmons told me you met the Captain America while you were at the Hub. What happened there?” Fitz repeated his question.

At the mention of Steve, Skye’s smiled again. “I met him after Simmons and I broke into the level 8 server to figure out where you and Ward were. Then he helped us by distracting people in the hangar so we could go save you guys.” 

She didn’t mention that he had seemed a bit flirtatious while doing those things or the fact that they had stayed in contact after. She thought they Q&A session was over until Simmons fake coughed and added, “You forgot to mention him holding your hand the entire time!” 

“WHAT?!” Fitz yelled turning to face Skye. “Captain freaking America was flirting with you and you didn’t think to mention that?” 

Skye’s face turn beet red. She didn’t think Simmons would remember seeing that in the hangar because she had been so concerned about   
rescuing her partner. “Steve was just lending me some support after-“ 

Before she could get even a sentence out both sets of eyes were staring at her, “STEVE?!” they shouted in unison. Fitz carried on, “You call him Steve?” 

“Well, that’s his name isn’t it?” Skye tried to down play using it. Even though the man in question seemed to be insistent that use it. 

Fitz and Simmons stared at her like she had lost her mind before demanding, “Tell us, everything.” 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

After taking a quick shower Ward realized that he needed to talk to Coulson. He didn’t think that he should continue on this mission. He was too wired from the staff and his focus just wasn’t there. The first place he decided to check was the Lab. Often times in between rounds of questioning Coulson would check in with the team and since no one was in the command center the next logical place for them to be was the Lab.   
Before he rounded the corner he heard both scientists shout, “STEVE?” Ward clenched his teeth. That name seemed to keep popping up everywhere today. As he moved to step into the room he caught sight of Skye. She was laughing and seemed fine even after all that had happened today. 

While seeing that she was okay made him feel slightly better, it still rankled him that he hadn't been the one to make her smile that, Ward thought to himself before deciding to move on to looking for Coulson in his office. 

After knocking on the open door to get his attention Ward asked, “A moment, sir?” 

“Come on in.” Coulson answered without taking his eyes of the screen displaying their suspect. 

Ward took a deep breath before sharing his concerns, “Sir, I’m concerned that my exposure to that weapon has compromised my ability to do my job.” 

That got the older man’s attention, “Go on.” 

“You’re familiar with my family history. So for obvious reasons I don’t think back to my childhood. Ever. There are things I put away a long time ago. On lockdown. Because to do my job I have to be focused, tactical. I can’t afford to be distracted. Especially by things that happened a lifetime ago.” He explained as clinically as he could. 

Coulson took a moment to consider what he had just been told. “You’re saying touching the staff unlocked certain memories?” 

Uncomfortable with discussing the particulars tried to explain without actually sharing what he saw. “My worst memory. The first time I ever felt… hate. And now it won’t go away. I don’t trust myself.” Ward thought back to how he treated everyone in the lab, what he said to Skye. “The way I went off on FitzSimmons in the lab. And how I hurt Skye…” 

“Grant,” Coulson said softly, “you telling me this makes me feel that I can trust you.” 

It was the use of his first name that struck Ward. Coulson rarely referred to anyone other than Skye using their first names. Before he could say anything Coulson continued, “Him on the other hand,” he indicated the professor, “I can’t get him to talk. You’ve got some rage built up. Maybe, its time to let it out.” 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

FitzSimmons and Skye stood staring at the video from the interrogation room in shock. The myth wasn’t a myth, the professor was the Asgardian, and this all started because he was horny centuries ago. Once her brain processed all this new information Skye burst out laughing. She couldn’t stop herself from grabbing her phone. She knew she had to share this with Steve. 

She quickly typed out a quirky message to get his attention before she gave him the full story, ‘The professor is the Asgardian warrior from the story! He spilled the beans on himself in the 1500’s trying to talk a woman into bed with him! Even the mightiest fall victim to pretty girls, huh? ’  
Skye didn’t have to wait long for a response. ‘You don’t say? Mind if I use this to tease Thor a bit when he starts his speech on Asgardians being impossible to make talk?’

His response made Skye bark out a small laugh. Which brought the Fitz and Simmons attention back on her. Simmons gave her a look that clearly asked what was so funny. She briefly considered trying not to answer the question but, she and these two had grown a lot closer since the incident with Miles and Skye wanted to make sure they knew she wasn’t hiding anything. Before she answered she cast a glance around to make sure they were alone and whispered, “I told Steve that this all started because this guy got… well horny-” 

“You’re texting him?” Simmons whispered at the same time Fitz almost shouted, “You have his personal phone number?!” 

Both girls turned on Fitz and said, “SHHH!” 

Skye whispered, “Yes, he gave me his phone number. Don’t shout it out though okay? I’m not exactly looking forward to mom and dad finding out just yet ok?” 

Simmons understood exactly what Skye meant. She wasn’t ready to make a huge deal out of something that could just as easily turn out to be nothing. While Skye sent Fitz a look pleading him to keep this to himself for a bit, Simmons sent him a glare letting him know that he would pay dearly if didn’t. 

“Alright, alright.” He hastily agreed. “But don’t think this subject is just getting dropped, missy!” Before he could add anymore May joined them. 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

Once they had pressured Randolph into cooperating the team made quick work of getting to Ireland where the final portion of the staff had been hidden in a monastery. While Ward still believed the professor should be locked in their interrogation room Coulson disagreed. As the group was getting ready to set out Ward approached the Asagardian to return the property they had confiscated when they brought him in.   
Ward decided to take this relatively private moment to ask the one thing he desperately wanted to know, “The effects of the staff… Are they permanent?” 

Randolph took a moment to consider. “Well the extra strength wears off. You will feel exhausted afterwards and need to sleep.” 

“And the other effects?” 

He had hoped to avoid this question. Randolph knew his answer wouldn’t be well received. “You mean that dark nasty ache in the pit of your stomach? The rage in your chest that makes you feel as if your heart is about to explode?” 

Ward nodded grimly. 

“It’s worse on humans. But, give it a few decades and that will wear off too.” 

After watching the Asgardian calmly saunter away, Ward slammed the box he had been holding, muttering to himself. “Great.”   
It was the loud slamming of the box that caused Skye to jump. She was trying to act normally around her S.O. but since he was still shaking with anger she couldn’t help being slightly wary of him. She glanced over as the man in question stormed over to the SUV and slammed the door. 

She sent off her text to Steve letting him know where they were headed then looked to Coulson and asked, “Are you sure Ward’s okay to go in the field? He’s not exactly acting like himself.” 

“But he knows it.” Coulson told her quietly. “He’ll be fine.” 

After he walked away to join those already in the SUV, Skye looked to May trying to gauge her opinion. The female specialist stared her down before saying, “I’m with Coulson. But I’ll keep an eye on Ward as well.” 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

It was a huge relief once the mob of people trying to get the staff was finally down for good. Most of the team was keeping a watchful eye on the cleanup crew SHIELD had dispatched to minimize civilian involvement in the final stages of this mission. Just Ward and May hung back in corner sitting quietly. 

After a few moments, Ward felt compelled to ask, “When you held it, did you see anything?” 

He felt more than saw her nod. It was a small relief that it he wasn’t alone in being affected by the staff. Maybe he wasn’t as broken as he thought he was. But he had watched May complete the staff and still function while holding all three sections. Just holding two had made him think that the anguish he felt was going to kill him. “Then how? How did you manage to hold all three?”

May still didn’t meet his eyes and for a moment he thought she wasn’t going to answer. Her quiet words shocked him to his core, “Because I see it every day.” 

There was a sudden clap of thunder and May left to investigate, leaving him to his own thoughts. He turned his gaze momentarily to Skye, watching as she glanced at her phone before turning back to the listen to whatever Simmons was saying to her. He realized that he really needed to apologize to her. Even after everything he had done to her today, she had still wasted no time in rushing to his side to check on him. That girl was always putting everyone’s needs above her own. 

Outside the church Coulson and May stood face to face with yet another Asgardian. Thor wasted no time in pulling his friend into a tight embrace. “Son of Coul! I was relieved to hear of your recovery. I wish to assure you my brother was duly punished before his death at the hands of the dark elves.” 

It took a moment for Coulson to get his breath back. “It’s good to have you back on Earth. I assume you’re here to take the staff off out hands.”   
“That I am. Midgard is no place for something of that magnitude. It has driven many Asgardian insane. I do not wish to see this world affected so.” May’s movement brought his attention to her and Thor respectfully looked her over and nodded respectfully, “It is easy to see you are a fine warrior. I offer my most sincere apologies for the trouble this relic may have caused.”

It was a rare sight to see Melinda May blush but one compliment from Thor and her cheeks flamed. Coulson took a mental picture of this moment already planning on teasing her later for it. Almost as though she could hear his thoughts May shot Coulson a death glare that warned him against that idea.

Changing the subject Coulson filled Thor in on the other Asgardian and how the staff came to be here. When he felt he had imparted all of the relevant information, he felt compelled to ask, “I hope you’ll allow Randolph to remain here. He seems happy here and he is harmless for the most part. He had no way of knowing this would happen.” 

Thor laughed at the anxiousness he heard in Coulson’s voice, “Oh, I am not one to fault a fellow Asgardian for choosing to remain on Midgard! I would be forced to punish myself just as severely, Son of Coul. I will not trouble the good professor beyond requesting his company from time to time when I am feeling nostalgic for home.” 

Two standard issue agents carried out the silver box that now contained the staff and stopped short when they recognized the Avenger standing calmly talking with the two senior agents. May motioned for them to bring to box over and she took it upon herself to pass it to Thor. When they remained standing there staring she coldly said, “You’re dismissed.” And sent them scurrying back into the church.

Once they were alone again, Thor turned to Coulson. “I wished to make introductions with the Lady Skye before I take my leave.” 

“Skye?” Coulson and May asked at the same time. 

“Yes, the Captain spoke of her commitment and compassion. I wish to commend her and offer my thanks for her aide in bringing him a bit of happiness.” Thor stated plainly, not noticing the confusion on their faces. 

Coulson stood staring piecing together what Thor meant. He should have assumed Skye left a lasting impression on Rogers, the same had happened when he first encountered the hacker. May was the one to activate her comm and calmly say, “Skye. We need you outside for a moment.” 

Moments later, Skye jogged out of the building and froze when she recognized their guest. Thor saw her approaching and moved to greet her. “Ah, the Lady Skye!” He reached to grasp her hand and bring it to his lips. He was fully committed to his Jane but could acknowledge that Skye was indeed beautiful. 

Still frozen, Skye just stared up at Thor with wide eyes until he continued, “My good friend, Rogers, told me of your bravery while searching for answers regarding your comrades. I had to take this opportunity to meet the lady that would face SHIELD from within as well as manage to cause the always stoic Captain to laugh.”

It was Skye’s turn to the shade of a tomato before trying to stutter out a response, “Uh, Thank you, Sir. I was just, um, just trying to look after my friends.” 

“You should not address me as Sir, Lady Skye. It's my hope that we will become great friends.”   
The similarity to what Steve had said when she first called him sir broke through the shock of meeting Thor and made Skye giggle. “Oh wow, Steve said almost the same thing to me at the Hub.” 

Thor joined in on her laughter, imagining how Steve would have reacted to hearing Skye call him sir. “I must go now. But I hope to see you again soon Lady Skye.” He turned to the other two, “Son of Coul. Lady May.” And then he twirled hammer and was gone. 

Turning to his hacker Coulson said, “You have a lot of explaining to do.” When she looked up at him, with the same wide eyes she’d given Thor, he couldn’t help but smile and add, “Tomorrow.” 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

Instead of returning to the bus the team opted to check into a nicer hotel for the night. After the past few days everyone could use a decent night sleep. Ward had sat in his room for all of twenty minutes before decided that he needed a stiff drink and made his way to the quiet bar he’d seen downstairs. 

On his third glass, Skye made her way quietly to sit next to him. At first she didn’t say anything just stared down into the drink shed brought over with her. Her silence was started to worry Ward and just as he was about dive into the apology he knew he should offer her, she finally spoke. “I could get used to turn down service with the cute little mints on my pillow.” 

“Don’t get used to it, rookie. Overnights aren’t standard.” Ward heard himself saying when he should have been begging for her forgiveness, asking if she was okay, offering to let her punch him to make things even between them. 

Still she smiled at him. It was nice to hear his usual tone instead of the angry one of the past couple days. “I know. But we deserve a nice night. You especially.” She looked at him pointedly. She wasn’t going to directly bring up what the staff had done but she wanted him to see that she saw just how much handling it had hurt him. Skye couldn’t stop herself from asking, “How are you feeling?” 

Ward shifted his gaze from the scotch in his glass to Skye. She was looking at him with such warmth and understanding that it almost floored him. “Im really sorry about that.” He said gruffly indicating the purple stain on her cheek. “Well that and for what I said in the lab.”   
Skye nodded, she had hoped she would get an apology out of him. “No harm, no foul.”

He looked down in glass feeling guilt was over him. He considered the mark on her face certainly a harm, even if she didn’t. “Does everything just roll off your back?” 

“No, of course not.” She didn’t want him to think that nothing mattered to her. “Sometimes staying angry does more harm than good. I save that for more important things. One small bruise isn’t something to hold a grudge over.” 

Her words soothed the guilt he was feeling a little, even if he wondered if he deserved to feel any better about how he’d treated her. He briefly considered opening up a bit and telling her about what the staff made him see but when he saw the trusting look on her face he chickened out. As selfish as it was, Ward wanted her to keep looking at him like that. So to squash the urge to tell her everything he was thinking he drained his glass and said, “I need to sleep the rest of this off. Don’t stay up too late, rookie, we’re still training in the morning.” 

She nodded before watching as he walked away. For a moment there Skye had thought that he would actually talk to her. Maybe one day she would stop getting her hopes up that she meant more to Ward than just his annoying rookie. 

Taking a deep breath, Skye briefly considered ordering another drink but thought better of it when she realized that five o’clock came quickly and she did not want to do any more pull ups than she had to. So she took her supervising officer’s advice and made her way back to her room.   
The elevator quickly stopped on her floor, as she made her way to the room she’d been assigned she reached into her bag to find they key. She glanced up as she heard the door from the stairwell on the opposite end on the long hall swing closed and saw May opening her door then pausing to glance over her shoulder before walking inside. When the agent’s door didn’t close Skye froze, May wasn’t the type to randomly leave her door open. 

While Skye tried to think of a reason why May was acting so strangely, she watched as Ward quietly walked through the open door like it was completely natural for him to be sharing a room with the other specialist. 

At least now she knew why it was impossible for to get through to Ward. He already had someone he could talk to, someone he could turn to for comfort. Skye wouldn’t lie to herself and pretend that it didn’t hurt to see Ward going to spend the night with May. After all, she had been harboring a crush on him since he yanked the bag off of her head the very first time she stepped foot on the bus. But at least now she knew for sure that’s all it would have ever been. A silly crush.

A ringing from her bag brought her out of her thoughts and making her smile. She knew exactly who it was and knew she had to tease him about meeting his fellow Avenger, “Well if it isn’t Thor’s good friend the Captain! I was wondering if I would get to talk to you tonight.” 

Steve was beginning to wonder if Skye ever answered her phone with a simple hello or if she really enjoyed teasing him. Not that he would complain. “No need to wonder, Lady Skye,” he said trying to imitate how Thor spoke, “I had to make sure that Thor didn’t scare you off.” 

Skye laughed and opened the door to her room saying, “Nope. No one’s scared over here. Just a bit curious what you’ve told your friend about me before he came to pick up the rage stick?” 

When she heard him falter a bit, Skye laughed and stepped into her room. 

Now for a little informal poll, I suppose.   
1) For the moment and likely throughout season 1 of AoS, The Winter Soldier, and season 2 of AoS there will be a lot of Skye/Cap. But I'm not just going to ignore Ward’s growing attachment because I think that is an important part to his story and makes for a much more complex character.   
My question is this…. Who should she end up with? Cap? Ward? Alone? I can write this whichever way seems best but a little direction would be helpful. 

2) Would anyone object in a bump in the rating to E? Follow up, do you guys want steamy or no? 

3) Any other pairings you would like to see more of?


	6. Discussions

A/N: I still don’t own any of these fine characters.   
A/N1: I am sorry for the delay! I know this is slightly a filler chapter but I needed to get some of the less exciting conversations out of the way to build up to the more fun bits that will happen in the next chapter that is already being worked on. Promise!

Chapter 6 

Ward was shocked to see sunlight steaming from the window when he woke, by his estimate it was close to eight. The professor hadn't been wrong when he'd told Ward that he would feel exhausted after the experience with the berserker staff. Ward hadn't slept this late in almost a decade and he didn't even remember falling asleep after and May had… 

He rolled over expecting to find her still in the bed with him assuming he would have woken if he had felt or heard her moving around. When all that greeted him was an empty bed and a silent room, Ward shook his head. He should have known that Melinda May was able to move just as stealthily as himself and she wasn't one to participate in the awkward morning after discussion. 

Deciding not to waste any more time, he thought about waking the reluctant Skye and making her get breakfast with him. Ward felt compelled to make sure that everything between them truly was okay after everything that had happened the past few days. 

Skye was always grumpy when he woke her up for early training which meant that she may be in a slightly better mood due to the extra few hour of sleep. It was a quick walk to her door just down the hall. He had learned after several weeks of living with her on the bus that knocking would simply be a waste of time and energy. Skye would sometimes fall asleep with headphones in to block the sound of the engines so the fastest way to get Skye out of bed was to literally drag her out of it. Plus, it gave him the chance to see her still rumpled and glassy eyed from sleep. 

Bypassing the hotel's security was a joke to people with specialized training. These door locks just provided the illusion of security. He moved through her door silently, unsurprised to see she had the curtains closed to block the light. He fully entered the room expecting to see her sleeping peacefully in the room’s huge bed but he was shocked to find it empty. Throwing the switch to the light, he quickly scanned the area. The bed was unmade and there were towels on the floor in the bathroom but Skye’s computer, phone, and bag were missing. His mind started flashing with all of the worst case scenarios so he forced himself to a deep breath and went to find Coulson. 

Ward rushed into the hotel’s restaurant, he immediately spotted Coulson and May sitting at a table in the back corner in what appeared to be friendly silence. As he made his way over to the table considering how to ask Coulson if he knew where Skye had run off to, Ward caught movement out of the corner of his eye and felt relief flooded his system when he saw that it was Skye. Objectively, he had known that nothing had happened but, he still felt better seeing her for himself.

By the time he made it to the table Skye had taken a seat next to Coulson and had snagged his coffee cup. Before Coulson could manage to protest Skye had gulped down the entire cup and began pouring another from the pot that had been left off to the side. When she realized the three other occupants of the table were watching her she looked down sheepishly, “Sorry, long night. Need caffeine.”

“Ok then.” Coulson shrugged while reaching for another mug and directing his attention to Ward. “How are you feeling? Any lasting effects from the staff?” 

Ward attempted to shrug his shoulders but winced. Without the adrenaline from the staff the consequences of fighting a mob of angry were beginning to be felt. “I've had worse, sir.” 

Without Skye’s habit of badgering Ward and Coulson with questions the table fell into silence, only speaking when the waitress approached to take their orders. He never thought that not hearing her chatter would be just as grating on his nerves as her incessant questioning. Ward kept glancing up to see if he could get a read on what was keeping her so quiet but all he saw was the bruise from his elbow and tiredness in her eyes. When he could no longer stand it Ward broke down and asked her, “Hey, are you ok? Usually you've asked about a dozen questions by now.” 

“I'm fine, Ward. Really. Just a bit tired.” Skye responded quietly without bothering to look up from the phone in her hand. 

Ward was ready to press for a more descriptive answer but was interrupted by FitzSimmons joining the group and bringing with them chatter about how to improve the night night rounds. Skye quickly chimed into their discussion with an idea of possibly finding a way to incorporate a tracking device in the rounds as a way to monitor suspects that were incapacitated but couldn’t be taken into custody right away. 

“That is bloody brilliant!” Fitz exclaimed. It took Simmons a moment to start babbling about a way to ensure that the tracker would be able to implant itself within the subject without causing enough damage to draw too much attention. 

He felt pride swell in his chest. This girl, that was barely able to think tactically several weeks ago, was now coming up with an idea that could help efficiently gain more intel without risking an entire op. Remembering how she had lit up when he had complimented her before the whole Miles situation, Ward wanted to see her smile like that again. “That’s a great idea, Skye. When did you come up with it?” 

Again, she barely glanced over at him when she answered, “Oh, it was just something I thought about last night when a friend was telling me a story.” 

Ward didn't miss the significant glance between Skye and Simmons. He watched as the two seemed to have a silent conversation. How women managed that still boggled his mind and he'd always wondered if it was just something that came naturally. He looked around at the rest of the team to see if anyone else understood what was going on between the girls. Fitz and Coulson and Fitz looked just as confused as he did. May, on the other hand, had a slight smirk that seemed to indicate that she too understood the silent girl code. 

It was apparent that none of the girls were going to clue them into their silent discussion. And as much as it bothered him, Ward knew he would be more likely to get Skye to talk to him if they were alone. It was always easier to snag a decent amount of personal time with her on the plane. With that thought in mind he turned to Coulson, “Where are we off to next, Sir?”

“D.C.” Coulson answered without thought. “Agent May and I have meetings in the Triskelion. Which means that the rest of you will have a few days of down time. It seems like we could all use a little relaxation.” 

Generally Ward was the type of agent that preferred to always be on a mission. However, he had to admit a few days off wouldn't be too bad. It would give his body more than enough time to recuperate. 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

As soon as the plane was at cruising altitude Simmons grabbed Skye by the hand and dragged her to the lab before anyone could follow. It was long past time that the two talked about what was really going on. Before Fitz could follow Simmons hit the lockdown button. “Start talking.”

Skye laughed, thinking that for the first time in her life she had a friend that actually cared enough to want to discuss something as normal as boys. Even if technically the ‘boy’ in question was Captain America. “What do you want to know?” 

Simmons pulled Skye until they were both seated in the labs roller chairs and they were facing each other. “Absolutely everything.” 

“There's not really all that much to tell.” She sighed. “It's a little difficult to have a normal date when…” Skye motioned to the plane around her. 

“But you two are quite obviously still in contact.” Simmons pressed. 

That much was true. Over the past few days there had been many texts and many phone calls. When they had spoken last night the conversation had flowed so easily that neither realized how late it had gotten until Skye mentioned that the sun was starting to rise. Skye knew there was no way she was containing the smile so she looked to Simmons and nodded. 

Simmons squealed and clapped her hands giddily for a few moments before calming down enough to ask, “Do you think there is something there? I mean I know you've just been talking to him and haven't really spent any significant amount of time with him but surely you must know if you like him. Well, of course you like him, who doesn't like him? What I mean to ask is if you have any romantic inclinations toward him? Do you think he has toward you? When will you see-“ 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Simmons, slow down!” Skye laughed. It was always entertaining to see Simmons excited by something. You could watch how quickly her mind jumped from one concept to the next. “I don't know what is going on exactly. I know that… He makes me laugh. And it's so easy to talk to him. But I don't want to just assume...” Skye trailed off unsure how to explain her nervousness. “I think I really do like him and I hope he likes me.” 

Both girls giggled a bit before Simmons tried to reassure her friend, “It's still new. And like with everything else when something is new there's bound to a certain amount of apprehension.” 

What Simmons was saying made sense. It made Skye begin to wonder if Steve had the same issue with nerves as well. There were times when they were talking that he would seem so confident but at other times he was shy and seem flustered. Not that she was complaining, it was so cute when he stuttered momentarily.

“For what its worth from what I saw at the Hub… He definitely seemed interested. He sort of seemed, well it was like he didn't want to let go of your hand.” Simmons told her friend quietly thinking about how while the group had quickly devised the rescue, Steve kept Skye's hand in his. Simmons wasn't ashamed to say that she had watched as the two said goodbye. Skye may be uncertain of Steve’s interest but no one else with eyes could miss it.

“We talked about that last night!” That was one of the moments Steve seemed to be at a loss for words. “He told me that he was worried that if he let me go I'd dart off before he could help and I'd get in even more trouble.” 

The girls dissolved into another fit of giggles. Mostly because Steve had accurately guessed exactly what would have happened. Before they could continue their conversation, Fitz came down from the living room area and started banging on the lab’s door. They could hear his muffled voice demanding to know why he was barred from his own lab.

It looked like this subject would have to be tabled for the moment. Though by no means was Simmons prepared to drop it completely. Seeing two people at the start of something as wonderful as love always gave her such a vicarious thrill. It wasn't like there were many men lining up to flirt with her. 

“This is my work station too, Jemma.” Fitz complained the second she released the locks and allowed him to enter. 

“Well how else am I supposed to get a moments privacy?!” She demanded crossing her arms. 

While the two started bickering and setting up various pieces of equipment, Skye snuck out quietly. It was best not to be in the middle when they were firing comments back and forth they were notorious for dragging people into the middle of their good natured fighting. 

 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

May entered Coulson’s office without bothering to knock. She could tell that something was bothering him at breakfast and she was more than ready to force him to talk it out with her. She had known Coulson a long time and was aware that after a certain amount of time brooding over a subject, he needed to vocalize his thoughts. 

The two sat silently looking at one another until May raised an eyebrow. Her way of asking what was going on without needing words. Coulson sighed, “I yelled at Skye. I told her that the system needs to be trusted when it turns out… The system was about to kill two people she cares about.” 

It was easy to understand why that aspect of the past week was one of the heaviest things on Coulson’s mind. In the short amount of time that Skye had been on board, he had grown incredibly attached to her. In a reassuring tone, May tried to console him, “You didn't know that. You had no way of knowing what Agent Hand had done.”

Abruptly, he stood and began pacing. A sure sign of agitation and worry. “It's my job to know what's going on with my team. After what happened with Simmons I should have been more cautious.” 

“Are you really trying to take the blame for Simmons catching an alien virus?” May questioned. “A virus, I might add, that had never been encountered or even considered before then?” 

Coulson had to admit on that score May was absolutely right. It was impossible to control everything. “No, you're right. But the thought of anyone on this team…” He trailed off. 

May knew that her friend was terrified of harm coming to people he cared for. He had seen, done, and lost a lot. Including his own life. “I know.” 

He nodded. The two sat silently. Coulson finally asked one of the questions that May knew had been making him itch with curiosity. “And just what the hell happened at the hub with Skye and…” 

May just glanced up at her friend. “Why would I know anything about that?” It was her personal rule to try and avoid becoming overly involved in the personal drama of those she worked closely with. That could complicate her ability to remain totally objective. “Would it really matter if there is?”  
Coulson sputtered momentarily. “Of course it matters. Skye’s my…” He trailed off unsure how to explain why he was instantaneously protective of the girl. Regaining his composure, he glared at May. “And don’t try and pretend that you don’t know everything that goes on in this bus, Melinda.” 

She just shrugged. No one on this bus was as secretive as they’d like to think. It was just a matter of listening when people spoke and observing their behavior. As she stood and moved toward the door May tossed over her shoulder, “If you’re really concerned about what is going on you should ask her.” 

The conversation was bound to be awkward but, Coulson knew that if he didn’t meet it head on the curiosity would slowly burn away at him. “Yea, yea, yea.” 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

Skye walked into the living area of the bus after escaping FitzSimmons’ science bickering and collapsed face down on the couch. The events of the last few days and the lack of sleep the night before had completely wiped her out. Even as exhausted as she was Skye still couldn’t quite wipe the smile off of her face. 

It had been so long since Skye had laughed as much as she had last night. Listening to Steve tell her what it was like to learn certain generational things and his opinion on them was hilarious. He told her about what the members of the Avengers were actually like and why she should disregard anything she may have seen in any SHIELD file about them because of both Tony and Natasha had a tendency to add things that were completely untrue as pranks. For instance, Clint did not actually request his arrows to be outfitted with streamers but Thor really was obsessed with pop tarts. That report was true.

As she laid remembering parts of conversation she pulled her phone from her pocket to look at the time then tried to calculate the time difference. The only thing her exhausted brain could determine was that it would be really early where he was. Instead of calling to tell him that they would be in DC in a few hours like she wanted to, Skye chose to fire off a quick text. ‘I hope you aren’t tired of talking to me cuz the team is actually headed to DC and I owe you coffee. Or you owe me coffee. Either way we should get that coffee.’ 

She wasn’t awake long enough to know that Steve’s reply was almost instant. 

A few minutes later, as Ward was making his way to cockpit to check in with May about what happened the night before he spotted Skye passed out on the couch. He couldn’t help but pause to stare at her. She looked so peaceful with a slight curve to her lips and her hair splayed out across her back. The still bruised cheek that caused Ward’s gut to twist. He had put that mark on her and he didn't think he'd start to forgive himself until it was fully healed. 

While Ward continued to watch over her in silence her phone chimed signaling a text, Ward jump back a bit unsure if the noise had disturbed Skye enough to wake up. He had a feeling she would not take kindly to him staring at her. Ward shook his head with a sigh of relief when Skye didn’t stir. But he chose to walk away now before something actually did rouse Skye from the nap she obviously needed and she caught him watching over her. 

He made his way to the cockpit knowing that what had happened between them the previous needed to be discussed. He wasn't eager to actually talk about it but, when colleagues crossed line as they had last night it was important to ensure that all parties were on the same page. Miscommunications or expectations could undermine the ability to effectively carry out a mission. And in this line of work that kind of mistake could very well be fatal. 

When he passed Coulson’s door he heard the team leader call out his name. “Yes, sir?” 

“Have you seen Skye around? There’s a few things I need to speak with her about before we land in DC.” 

“She’s asleep in the common room. I can go wake her if you need, sir.” Ward assumed that Coulson needed to discuss certain ground rules about visiting the Triskelion, especially after the Hub incident. Thinking about all the havoc she could cause in a base the size of the Triskelion… Ward realized that he may not be able to let her out of his sight while they were there. 

Coulson quickly shook his head. “That won't be necessary, Ward. She was up for most of the night, if she got any sleep at all. I could hear her laughing all night through those ridiculously thin walls.” 

Maybe everything did just roll of her back. It was hard to believe that someone could find the will to giggle after the week they had searching for the staff. “I can send her up here later if you'd like me to, sir.”

“Thank you, Ward.” When Coulson returned to reading one of the many files on his desk, Ward knew that he had been dismissed. 

Ward left the office and continued on to the cockpit. May barely glanced at him as he took the copilots seat. They sat in silence for a few moments before he cleared his throat and got straight to the point. “About last night-“

She stopped him from continuing with a look. “It was just sex, Ward.” 

He should have known that May wasn't going to be the type of woman to allow herself to be led around by her emotions. “Just sex?” 

“Yes. It's an itch we scratched. No need to get feelings involved.” There was no emotion in her voice. 

Silence again took over the cockpit once again. Ward realized that her evasion still hadn't given an indication as to where the two of stood now that they had ‘scratched the itch’. “So scratching this itch was just a one time deal?” 

Ward could see the self-satisfied smirk briefly pass overs May’s face before she shrugged, “If that's what you want.” 

In reality, she would prefer having a mutually beneficial arrangement. There was no risk to her objectivity with Ward. He wasn't someone that May could see herself caring about as more than teammate and having someone on the bus that was available when she needed to let loose a little bit and blow off steam but wasn't going to expect her to fall madly in love or want commitment would make handling the downsides of this job much easier to bare. “I wouldn't be opposed to repeat performances.” 

That got Wards attention. He was a bit confused now so he decided to ask for clarification “It would just be sex?” 

May turned and actually looked at the man she was essentially propositioning for stringless sex. She thought him striking since the moment she'd seen him and she respected his effectiveness in tight situations. But there was nothing more than that. “Yes. We could both use an outlet.” 

Ward sat and considered everything he just heard. A beautiful woman was telling him that she wanted to have what was essentially a no strings affair? It couldn't be that simple. “What's the catch?” 

A moment passed before May elaborated, “If it causes any problems, it ends.” 

He looked over at her, there was no sign of any feeling on her face and she didn't seem to want to add anything more. “Ok then. Just sex.” 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

It was impossible for Steve to get any sleep after spending the majority of his evening talking to Skye. He originally called her just to check on her. Thor had told him that she was unharmed but had asked about the bruise marring her cheek. Still, Steve felt the need to hear that she was fine from her own mouth. 

The two ended up speaking for hours about anything that came to mind. It had been so long since Steve had spoken so openly to someone. It felt great and he wasn't willing to let this feeling slip away. 

Skye had said that she was fairly certain her team would be making a trip to DC which was admittedly the main reason Steve had chosen to take his leave of Avengers Tower. He'd told Tony and Clint that he wanted to meet with some people about what was being done to track down Centipede. They, of course, didn't buy it for one second. 

Steve knew that at some point Skye would have to been introduced to the entire team. It was inevitable, largely due to Tony’s curiosity, constant demands to pick her brain, or his questioning her existence. Even though Steve wanted all of his team to know Skye he still hesitated to drag her into what the circus that knowing the Avengers could be. For just a little while he wanted to keep her mostly to himself. At least while the two of them were discovering what they could be to one another. 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

After leaving May to pilot the bus in solitude Ward made his way down to the area that was typically used for training. He needed to clear his head a bit before he woke Skye and dragged her down here. They hadn't had the opportunity to really discuss the events of the past week or so and between the Hub and the staff there was a lot that needed to be covered. 

As he laid out the mats that would be needed for Skye's next lesson in hand to hand he thought over her strange behavior at breakfast. It would be easy to blame the fact that she was quite obviously tired but Ward couldn't shake the feeling that it was more than that. 

Skye was usually so open with him. For a time Ward had believed that she was incapable of holding a thought to herself but since the Hub, she seemed to be holding things back from him. And based on the looks between Skye and Simmons this morning at the table, the scientist at least had some idea what these things were. This wasn't something he was prepared to let pass. 

Quietly he made his way to a still sleeping Skye. It didn't appear that she had moved since he had last stood over her. Part of him wanted to let her continue sleep peacefully, the same part wanted to scoop her up and carry her off to his bunk where he could keep her safe negating the need to teach her hand to hand combat. 

But that wasn't an actual possibility. Instead he reached over and gently ran a hand down her arm. “Skye. Come on, sleepy head.” 

She tried to turn away from the disturbance and mumbled, “No. Want more sleep.” 

Ward smiled to himself. “Nope. You need to train.” 

With a little more grumbling she finally sat up with a stretch. Just as Ward was about to question what had kept her up all night, Skye glanced at the phone she still had in her hand and smiled sweetly. 

“I'll go change and meet you in the torture chamber.” Skye grumbled as she tapped out what was obviously a response to the message that caused her smile. 

Ward clenched his jaw and watched her leave silently. He knew he had no right to be possessive or jealous but that didn't stop the feeling from settling in his stomach. When Skye caught up to him the training area he was taking out the feeling on the heavy bag. 

“Reporting for torture, Agent Ward.” Skye sang as she trotted down the stairs.

Once she was warmed up and had stretched, Ward led her to the mats. “We need to work on your self defense. After what happened in the crypt it's clear we've slacked there.” 

Unthinkingly she reached to touch the mark still on her cheek from Ward’s elbow. Even though she knew that Ward was ultimately right she felt the need to defend her limited abilities. “Well to be fair I wasn't aware that I'd need to defend myself from my SO.” 

Her casual reference to what had happened made Ward flinch. “You need to be prepared to defend yourself at all times, against any one.” 

For the next hour, Ward put her through the paces of basic self defense and evasion tactics. Correcting her when she let her guard slip, reminding her of the next steps when she faltered. It was good to see her focusing and really trying. 

“Alright. Let's move on to the the bag. Jab cross, ten minutes.” It dawned on Ward after several minutes that Skye hadn't made any of the usual grumblings she did during training. By this point Ward was normally willing to cut training short just to stop her complaining. It was time for him to get the bottom of what was going on. “I heard you were up pretty late last night. Got something on your mind, Rook?” 

Skye looked at him with an unreadable expression and continued throwing her jabs at the bag as he held it study. “Like you have room to talk, Ward.” 

That brought him up short. “What's that supposed to mean?” 

“Sorry.” Skye sighed, “I guess I'm still a bit cranky.” 

Ward knew an evasion when he heard one. Especially coming from Skye. “What's up? 

Instead of answering or even bothering to make a snarky comment, Skye just continued with the exercises. “Seriously, Skye, what’s going on?”   
She finally stopped throwing punches at the bag and really looked at Ward. She could see the worry in his eyes and felt slightly guilty. The last thing Ward needed to feel guilty for was her sudden need for a little emotional distance. But Skye also knew that she needed it to adjust to looking at Ward as just her supervising officer. “Really, I'm fine. I'm just really tired.” 

“Okay…” Again the two drifted into silence as Skye continued the training session. Until tears interrupted the quiet once again. “So you forgot to mention you met the famous Captain America while you were running around the Hub.”

Skye momentarily faltered. “Between searching the alien rubble and then chasing the rage stick we didn't have a lot of time to chat.” 

While the excuse was true enough, it wasn't the whole truth. Skye had considered telling Ward about Steve while they were sitting at the bar in Ireland but he had left before she could figure out the best way to bring up the topic. And when she saw him walking into May’s room it dawned on her that if there are things that he keeps to himself then maybe she should follow his lead. 

It would have been easy for Ward to accept her easy answer but she had yet to start babbling about the introduction. He decided to press a bit more with a light hearted joke, “Don't tell me you did something embarrassing!” 

Skye froze. Of course Ward assumed she had embarrassed herself. Because that's all he saw her as. She hadn't missed the look of surprise on his face when she suggested the tracer rounds and he still hadn't bothered to acknowledge that she had saved his ass by breaking all of his oh so important SHIELD by laws. 

When she was about to speak up and explain to Ward just how wrong he was something Steve had told her replayed in her mind. ‘Sometimes it's better to let people underestimate you.’ So instead of giving him a scathing retort about how much her supervising officer obviously doubted her, Skye took a deep breath and plastered the biggest smile she could manage, “Gee, thanks.” As she turned and started removing her hand wraps as an excuse not to face him she continued, “There wasn't much to tell. He made sure I got back to bus in time to go get you and Fitz. Offered to help us slip out for our daring, off books rescue.” 

Ward laughed softly. That answer seemed closer to the Skye he'd become accustomed to, so he kept up the joking a bit. “Well, don't think you can pull something like that at the Triskelion. Security is even tighter there and I'll be there to keep an eye on you this time.” 

“Ha ha, very funny.” Skye dead panned. “Besides I thought it was going to be down time. I wasn't really planning on hanging around all the suits.” 

“Oh, got some special plans?” Ward asked, skeptically. He thought Skye would be itching to see just how the biggest SHIELD base operated. 

Skye simply shrugged and went to grab a bottle of water. Before she was forced to sit through more of Ward’s questioning Coulson’s voice called down from the catwalk, “Skye. Can I see you in my office?” 

Both heads swiveled up in time to see Coulson already leaving the area secure in the knowledge that Skye would follow. Ward chuckled a bit again, “Looks like you're going to get another ‘stay out of trouble’ speech. Think it will work this time?” 

She didn't bother looking back at Ward as she moved to follow Coulson, “I guess we’ll see.” 

It would make sense that Coulson wanted to talk to her about the next stop to Ward but, Skye had a feeling this was about something completely different. More than likely a more detailed explanation of why Coulson’s childhood hero felt the need to discuss Skye with the God of Thunder. 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

One of the benefits of having Tony Stark as a good friend was the occasional use of his private jet. Even with Steve’s affinity for speeding, driving to DC would have taken him twice the time as flying. He fully planned on using the extra time to tie up loose ends with the ops he had been running for SHIELD and taking a few well-earned personal days. With both him and Skye continuing active missions, Steve knew that time together wouldn't come easy so he needed to take advantage of what little he got. 

He boarded the elevator after finishing up the tedious paperwork that always came with moving even an inch within SHIELD intent on ensuring that Fury was aware that even though he was currently in DC, there wouldn't be any active missions he would participate in. At least for a few days. 

Before the elevator doors could fully close the STRIKE team leader, Brock Rumlow, stuck his hand in. He was dressed in full tactical gear unlike the casual street clothes Steve was still wearing. “Morning, Captain. You're here early.” 

Steve nodded and moved a little over to allow his colleague a bit more space. “You are too.” 

“Headed out on a mission.” Rumlow told him. “I'm headed up to the chopper if you want in. We could always use skills like yours.” 

Any other time Steve would have jumped on board without second thought just to avoid being stuck at a desk. It was a nice change to have a reason to stay behind. “Can't today, man. I'll catch the next one.” 

Rumlow was a bit shocked. “What? You got a hot date or something?” 

The elevator stopping at the top executive floor saved Steve for having to tell Rumlow too much he walked away smirking. “Something like that.” 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

Skye didn't bother changing out of her workout clothes before going to talk with Coulson. “You needed to see me, AC?” 

He looked up from a file in front of him, trying to hide the chuckle at his hacker’s unique nickname for him. “Yes. About what happened at the Hub.”

Sighing, she fully entered his office and closed the door. If this was just him giving her a lecture about what she did wrong then she didn't need everyone to hear it. And if this was about who helped her while she broke the rules… She really didn't need it to be overheard. “Look, I'm sorry I went behind your back but I followed my gut. Just like you've told me to do.” 

“And you were right.” Coulson stood and led her to small sitting area his office held. “I'm more interested in how Steve Rogers came to be involved in the situation.” 

“I didn’t know he was following me! I wasn't trying to make a scene, I swear.” Skye was well aware how much her de facto mentor valued a certain amount of confidentiality. She didn’t want him to think that she had spilled secrets two missions in a row. 

Coulson didn't even bother hiding his smile, “I know all that Skye. Captain Rogers has a tendency to jump into new situations with both feet. A lot like you.” 

“So he's told me.” Skye laughed. She knew there would be no point in hiding her continued friendship from Coulson. When he looked at her pointedly she continued, “Yes, we've been talking since the Hub.” 

While Coulson had assumed based on what Thor had said that this would be the case, having it confirmed was something he hadn't really anticipated. He really didn't know what to say. Captain Rogers was a huge improvement to Skye's last friend. But Coulson still felt oddly protective of his newest team member and the man he considered a hero. “You have obviously made quite the impression…” 

It didn't seem like there was anything that Skye could say. She wasn't going to deny that there was a certain connection and she certainly wasn't going to lie to Coulson again. When it became clear that he wasn't going to continue without some form of acknowledgement from her, she simply nodded. 

“He's a good man, Skye.” Coulson said quietly. “He's been through a lot.”

Skye nodded. During some of their talks he had hinted at the darker parts of his past. She'd listened but uncharacteristically chosen not to press. “Which is why I think he could use a friend. Don't you, AC?”

He didn't miss the slight twinge of hurt in her voice and he realized that he may have made her feel undeserving, “I know he does. Just as much as you do, Skye.” Coulson reached over and clasped her hand to make sure he was getting through. “I think the two of you… You could make sense.” 

Needless to say she was shocked. She had expected Coulson to tell her that getting involved with Steve wouldn’t be a good idea. Basically getting his blessing was the last thing she expected. “Thanks… I think.” 

“Should I expect to be seeing more of him?” Coulson asked, considering how some things seemed to go for this teams missions, having a direct line to a super soldier may not be such a bad thing. 

A blush spread across Skye’s cheeks. She didn’t want to get too ahead of herself but she did hope that he would be around. “Well, he will be in DC while we are there.”

“Excellent. The two of you should consider going to this amazing Mediterranean restaurant in Woodley Park. The chicken is fantastic!” Coulson told her excitedly. 

A/N2: It seems that every one is overwhelmingly in favor of Skye/Cap. In the show I am rooting for a redemption arc for Ward but I don’t want it to happen too quickly. I think it’s something that needs to be painstakingly earned.   
The next chapter will be in DC. With coffee, dates, movies, a sleep over, and… Steve and Ward’s first meeting.   
The question is… Should any other Avengers make an appearance in DC? And what to do with Fitz and Simmons.   
Let me know opinions.


	7. It's Real

**A/N: I still don't own the characters.**

**A/N1: Here's part one of the teams downtime. There may be a couple more before I slide back in the AoS timeline for a bit.**

**Chapter Seven**

Steve didn't bother waiting for Fury’s assistant to notify him of the coming intrusion. Nothing much escaped Fury’s notice and over the past year or so it had become a game for Steve to attempt to sneak up on the man. Today was no exception.

 

Even with Fury’s back to the office and Steve moving silently toward him it wasn't a surprise when Fury said, “Nice try, Captain.”

 

Steve shook his head and moved to sit on the couch that Fury typically used for his less formal meetings. “One day I'm going to catch you, you know that right?”

 

“We’ll see.” Fury chuckled. “I assume this drop in is about you wanting a few days off.”

 

It wasn't a surprise that Fury already had some idea of what brought Steve up to this level. There were certain agents that Fury had taken particular interest in. There was no point in explaining any more so Steve just kept his face neutral as he stared at his director.

 

“This new girl… She's risky, Cap.” Fury had said as much to Coulson but, it seemed the girl had something special.

 

Hearing that Skye was a risk from the man that Steve credited most of the blame for what led up to the Battle of New York was more than a little funny. But instead of pointing that out, Steve said, “Romanoff, Banner, Stark…”

 

Before he could continue, Fury interrupted, “I take your point.” In the silence that followed Fury took a seat as well. After several moments he spoke again, “What's your take on the girl?”

 

“Skye.” Steve told him, firmly. “Her name is Skye.”

 

The two men had what would appear to be a staring contest, almost a silent battle of wills. On this very rare occasion Fury ceded, “Skye. Pretty name.”

 

“She is smart and quick on her feet.” This wasn't the place for Steve to lead with his emotions. Fury wasn't interested in emotion, he was interested in facts and usefulness.

 

“Be that as it may, she's made a few poor choices.” Fury thought about her past with the Rising Tide and the incident report from Austin he'd read.

 

Steve stared at Fury with no small amount of disbelief. “Who hasn't made poor choices, sir?”

 

Fury sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. A sure sign that Steve’s jab had made the hit. “Fair point. Apparently this Skye has a way of inspiring loyalty.”

 

“That she does, sir.” Steve readily agreed. He had felt protective of Skye before even speaking to her and from what she told him, Coulson had bonded with her instantaneously.

 

Fury stood and walked back to his place behind his desk before looking Steve in the eye. “The time is yours, Rogers. Use it wisely.”

 

The conversation had gone about as well as Steve had expected and he had gotten the time off that he needed. The moment he'd fully opened the door Fury calmly informed him , “I'll be keeping an eye on your Skye. Just so you know.”

 

Steve looked over his shoulder, “Noted, sir. And just so you know… So will I.”

 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

 

When the bus was about twenty minutes from the airstrip Coulson called for a team briefing in the living space. As usual Ward was the first to appear, he simply nodded to Coulson and took a seat on the couch that Skye had been using as a crash pad a few hours prior.

 

Next to join them was FitzSimmons still debating the best possible way to incorporate a tracker into night night rounds. Ward made a half hearted attempt to understand what they were saying but between the speed and technological terms he was lost. His attention quickly snapped to Skye as she joined the group. He frowned when she didn't didn't take the open space next to him on the couch, choosing instead to sit in the chair farthest away from him.

 

“Alright, once we land you four will have at least 72 hours of down time. Give or take.” Coulson explained. The team knew that they were getting at least two days off but Director Fury had been in contact and requested Coulson’s involvement in planning a mission that would require a little extra time.

 

FitzSimmons and Skye all had momentary bouts of excitement, while Ward just raised his brow at the change. “We each have rooms reserved at The River Inn, near the Triskelion. Feel free to use them or stay on the bus, your call.”

 

“Another real bed!” Skye clapped with enthusiasm.

 

Simmons snorted a bit, “You should actually sleep in it and not stay up all-“

 

“JEMMA!” Skye cut her off and glared at her which made Simmons cover her mouth looking like she genuinely hadn't meant to say it out loud.

 

Ward glanced between the two, this was the second time someone had alluded to Skye not exactly using her room for sleeping. It grated on his nerves that apparently everyone but him knew what she had been up to. If anyone should know what had Skye up all night, it should be him.

Before the discussion could go any further Coulson continued, “Though none of you should be actively working, I expect frequent check ins.” He rested his gaze on Skye, as if this order while applicable to the team was actually meant for her. After a moment she nodded. “Keep your phones with you at all time in case something urgent comes up but most importantly…”

 

Coulson looked at each of them seriously,”Have a bit of fun. You all have earned it.”

 

The plane began making its descent to land and the team scattered, presumably to gather their belonging for the three day break at hotel. Skye didn’t notice that instead of Ward making his was to his own bunk had followed her to hers. Ward stood silently in the door frame watching as she began packing her electronics into a bag.

 

As much as he wanted to interrogate Skye about why she apparently didn't make use of the bed he couldn't find a way to ask without sounding disapproving. What came out sounded gruff and almost like an order. “We're going to take the SUV to the hotel. May and Coulson have things to handle at the base. Meet us in the cargo bay in five.”

 

Skye jumped slightly when he spoke. Her mind had been too occupied thinking about her date with Steve. She zipped up her bag before answering, “It's ok. I'll find my own way to the hotel later.”

 

When she tried to walk past him Ward lightly grabbed her arm pulling her to a stop. “Come on, Rookie. You can get some actual sleep and then I'll even take you to dinner.”

 

A few weeks ago Skye would have jumped at this offer. Now, knowing that Ward was with May she couldn't help but think this was a invitation given out of pity which made her feel insulted. “I'm fine, Ward. I've already got plans.”

 

Ward tightened his grip when she again tried to push past him. He knew that Skye had never been to DC and he was pretty sure she didn't know anyone in the area. “You shouldn't wander through the city alone, especially with no sleep. If it's so important that it can't wait, I'll go with you after we check in.”

 

“Ward,” Skye said trying to be patient, “First of all, I'm a big girl and would be fine on my own. Secondly, I'm not going to be alone.”

 

“Do you really think meeting up with one of your hacker buddies is a good idea right now?” His voice taking on a scathing tone. He considered the last time Skye had run off to find one of her _friends_ she'd been found in their suspect’s apartment…half naked in his bed.

 

Skye felt an cold rage rush through her system. Of course Ward assumed the worst of her. Why wouldn't he? It took a huge amount of control not to snap back at him. Instead she stared into his eyes, radiating her anger and in a tone that almost frosted the air, “What I do when I am ‘off the clock’ is none of your business, Agent Ward.”

She didn't wait for his response before yanking her arm out of his hold and storming off. Ward hadn't missed the way she had thrown his own words back at him and realized that perhaps their relationship still hadn't returned to normal. He scrubbed a hand over his face, considering the idea that Skye may not actually let things roll off her back and that his words may have hurt her more than she let on.

 

Before he could make it to the cargo bay and try speaking with Skye with a more level head, Ward found Coulson and May standing in command center. Even though Ward knew he had approached the topic the wrong way with skye, he still felt that the possibility of her meeting up with known Rising Tide associates needed to be discussed. “Sir, I have a few concerns about Skye.”

 

Coulson immediately shifted his focus from the teams previous mission reports displayed to his specialist. “What do you mean?”

 

“ going off on her own, sir. Being evasive about her plans.” Ward did his best to keep any emotions out of his voice.

 

“And this concerns you because…?” If Skye wasn't willing to open up to Ward about the new occurrences in her private life Coulson wanted to respect her choice. But if what Ward was continuing to question her loyalty even after the Hub, it was a subject that needed to be addressed.

 

Ward found it a bit odd that Coulson didn't seem effected by Skye's renewed secrecy. In Austin he hadn't hesitated to assign a tail on the off chance that Skye was hiding something. “If she's meeting with any of her hacker friends, it could cause issues. Would you like me to monitor her while we're inactive?”

 

Silence fell between the three agents standing around he table. Coulson sighed and glanced to his second in command, searching for a way to ease Ward’s mind for the time being while maintaining another team members privacy. When all he got as a response from her was a silent shrug Coulson sighed. “That won't be necessary, Agent Ward.” Then glancing out one of the planes small windows, Coulson saw none other than Captain America hugging the girl in question. “I can assure you that Skye's friend is in no way a hacker.”

 

When the team leader left and it was just May and Ward in the room, she sighed. “You shouldn't worry so much about Skye.”

 

To say that Ward was shocked by May’s advice would be a wild understatement. He thought that if anyone would doubt Skye it would be May. Not bothering to hide the doubt in his voice he asked, “You don't worry about what she could do?”

 

“Not since the Hub.”

 

There was no more explanation to be offered as far as May was concerned so she left Ward standing there lost in his thoughts, wondering what the hell had actually happened at the Hub.

 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

 

Skye was still seething as she made her way to the cargo bay. Ward had no right to comment on what she chose to do with her off time considering how he spent his. Just as she passed the lab, Simmons again yanked her in. “Crap! Jemma, you're gonna yank my arm off if you keep this up.”

 

“Oh hush you!” Simmons gestured toward the runway through the open cargo bay door. “He’s here. Captain America is here! Which I'm assuming you know because he's probably here to pick you up, isn't he?”

 

Simmons was practically vibrating with excitement which made Skye laugh. “Yes, he owes me coffee.”

 

“You don't seem very happy about it? Why aren't you happy about it?” It was a fair question. The run in with Ward had seriously dampened Skye's good mood.

 

“My all knowing supervising officer is just being a grade A jackass.” Skye sighed and shook off the last of her anger. She wasn't going to let Ward’s mood ruin her day. “And honestly, I'm kind of nervous…”

 

Suddenly Simmons had a better understanding of why her friend wasn't practically skipping off the plane. Between first date jitters and angry specialists Skye had every right to be frazzled. “If it makes you feel any better I've been watching him since we landed and I'm pretty sure he's just as nervous as you are.”

 

“How can you possibly know that?” Skye scoffed.

 

“Just look,” Simmons adjust where they were standing so that Skye had a clear view of Steve as he stood facing the bus but fidgeting and shifting on his feet. “And a few moments ago he was pacing. Clear signs of nervousness.”

 

Even if Skye refused to admit it Simmons was obviously right and seeing it actually helped ease some of Skye's tension. Squaring her shoulders Skye looked to her friend and said “Ok, well wish me luck.”

 

“You don't need luck. Just be you.” Simmons smiled. “Oh and I expect a full update as soon as you get to the hotel. No excuses!”

 

Skye laughed and headed down the ramp. She could tell when Steve spotted her because stood up and bit straighter and sent a huge smile in her direction. Without even realizing it Skye sped up a little bit and was almost jogging to where he was, when she got closer instead of stopping she jumped and wrapped her arms around Steve's neck.

 

Suddenly having Skye in his arms was a very pleasant surprise for Steve. He had half expected their greetings to be slightly awkward given that they hadn't spent much time together yet. Though he should have expected Skye to figure out a way to keep him on his toes. Quickly catching on, he wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her up a bit. “Is this how you greet everyone or should I feel special?” He teased her with a low chuckle.

 

“Well I figured the guy who helped me stop Norwegian terrorists and then made me laugh all night deserved a hug.” When Steve placed her gently back on her feet she smiled up at him. “Are you complaining?”

 

"Not at all. Feel free to hug me anytime.” He briefly tightened his hold on her waist essentially continuing the hug.

 

In this moment, Skye wondered why she was nervous in the first place. So far everything between Steve and herself had flowed so easily, why would a coffee date be any different. “I'll keep that in mind. Now, where is the coffee you promised me?”

 

Steve smiled, “I know the best place to get coffee in DC.” He took his hands from her waist but, immediately grasped her hand. Just like at the Hub the second he had touched Skye, a certain warmth spread through him that he was desperate to hold onto. “Any problems with motorcycles? It's the easiest way to get around here.”

 

“My only issue with them is that I don't have one of my own.” Skye laughed.

 

The two made small talk about the merits of different models of bikes as they walked to where his had been parked near one of the hangar bays used for smaller planes When he handed her a helmet but didn't produce one of his own Skye looked at him confused. Steve shook his head and helped adjust the chin straps before explaining, “I’m not risking your safety and I heal a bit faster than most.”

 

After he'd adjusted the helmet to his satisfaction, he stopped and looked in Skye's eyes. They both seemed to freeze as he gently ran his fingers from the chin strap to the bruise on her cheek. The simple touch took Skye's breath away and she moved into his touch. Steve started to lean down and close the distance between them, giving in to his desire to brush his lips against hers.

 

Her eyes fluttered closed just before their lips met. The same electricity she felt whenever Steve touched her jolted through her system. Skye slowly moved her hands to grip his arms before sliding up to circle his neck, bringing her body closer to his.

 

Feeling her pressed up against him brought what Steve had intended to be a chaste kiss to another level. He deepened the kiss, swiping his tongue gently over her lips while dropping one hand to grasp her waist again, trying to bring her even closer. When Skye moaned, Steve took advantage of the opportunity to explore her mouth.

 

No longer frozen, Skye met his tongue with her own. What had started as soft tentative was quickly morphing into a more consuming passionate kiss. Skye's ran her fingers through Steve's short hair and smiled slightly against his lips when this made him tighten the hold he had on her waist.

 

The loud sound of metal smacking against concrete from inside the near by hangar suddenly made the two jerk apart. Steve looked around for a moment, trying to remind himself of two things. First, they were in public which made continuing more than just problematic. Second, this was their first date and Skye deserved a great deal more than a quick tumble. She deserved romance and respect.

 

After taking a deep breath, he looked at her again and took pride in the fact that he was the that caused her eyes to be slightly gazed and her lips to be parted as she caught her breath.

 

Steve smiled and couldn't stop himself from leaning in to quickly press his lips to her once more. “I promised you coffee.”

 

Skye was still unable to find her voice so she just nodded and let him help her onto his bike.

 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

 

When Clint returned to Avengers Tower after handling a quick check in with Dr. Selvig, he wasn't surprised to find that Steve's bike was missing along with Tony’s jet. After dropping his things in his living quarters, Clint set out to see what the plan was. After all Tony never just handed over his toys without there being some form of strings attached.

 

Of course, Tony was in his lab toying with what looked like the boots to a new suit. He didn't even bother looking up when Clint took a seat across the table from him. “Trying to add a bit more umph to the thrusters but, I can't seem to get the balance right.”

 

It was a good thing that Tony generally didn't require anyone to actually understand what he was talking about when he got in one of these moods. The only other teammate that could really keep up was Banner and he was at SciTech teaching the next class of lab rats how to recognize gamma radiation. “Jets gone.”

 

Tony smirked. “I, being the kind and generous sort, lent it to Romeo.”

 

“And I'm sure your generosity won't extend to giving Cap privacy, will it?” Clint chuckled and leaned forward a bit. After living with Tony for a few months, he'd started to see the fun in not being so disinterested.

 

Tony gave Clint a look of mock hurt and grabbed at his chest. “You wound me! I would never interrupt a man’s first date. Give me some credit, Katniss.”

 

It took Clint a moment to piece it together because there was no way that Tony would actually not find a way to mess with Steve's date. “Jet needed repairs, didn't it?”

 

“Yea, it'll be ready by morning. You up for a field trip?” Stark questioned his teammate while reaching under his lab bench to grab a couple hidden beers.

 

Grabbing one of the bottles Clint laughed. “Oh, I wouldn't miss this for the world.”

 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

 

Steve stopped his bike in a small alleyway off P Street after about a ten minute ride. He had briefly considered prolonging the drive just so Skye would have to keep her arms wrapped around him for a little longer.

 

Skye climbed off the bike, took off the helmet and looked around confused. “The best coffee in DC is in an alley?”

 

“No. But the best parking near the best coffee is.” Steve grabbed her hand once again and pulled her along. When she spotted a small patio surrounded by flower boxes that almost exploded with colors, she knew that's where they were headed. He looked at her and smiled, “Trust me.”

 

He held the door open for her and as she stepped into the shop she was floored by the splashes of color. Much like the flower boxes on the patio the walls glowed and made the small space seem warm and welcoming. It wasn't crowded but there were a few people scattered throughout the seating area, obviously enjoying the relaxed quiet environment.

 

She looked up when an older man came out from behind a curtain near a vintage cash register. “Ah Mr. Rogers! It's been too long since you visited.”

 

"Business kept me away, Emilio*.” Steve laughed and reached out to shake his friends hand.

 

Emilio looked past Steve to include Skye, “You are forgiven only because you have brought in such a beautiful woman. Now, would you like your usual?”

 

“Make it two, please.” Steve told him. When Skye looked at him with with raised eye brows he realized she may have taken his ordering for her as a sign of chauvinism. “Sorry, it's just, I promised you the best coffee and I know that Emilio makes the best specialty coffee. I didn't mean to… Crap.”

 

Skye looked at how flustered Steve had become and couldn't help but laugh. “It's a good thing you're cute, you know that?”

 

“ been a long time since anyone called me cute.”

 

She laughed, when she looked up at him again and their eyes locked Steve felt the same desire to kiss her lips he had at the airstrip. Only this time he knew how warm and soft her lips would be, he knew how it would feel to have her in his arms. That knowledge made it impossible for him to resist pulling her close and capturing her lips again.

 

Emilio coughed from behind he counter and broke the spell. Steve pulled back slightly grinning like the kid who got caught stealing from the cookie jar. “Why don't you go grab us a table on the patio?”

 

Skye nodded but before walking away she smiled at Emilio, “It was really nice to meet you. If your coffee is as good as this guy says it is you and I are going to have to become pals.”

 

Both men laughed and watched as she made he way outside. “She seems like a great girl. You should try to keep her around if you don't mind be saying so, Mr. Rogers.”

 

With his eyes still locked on Skye through the window Steve said, “That's the plan.”

 

He reached into his pocket to pay for their drinks but Emilio stopped him. “On the house. It's good to see you smiling.”

 

Steve couldn't argue with that. It felt good to be genuinely smiling, it felt even better knowing that the cause of his sudden up swing in mood seemed to be just as effected by him. He quickly made his way over to where Skye had made herself comfortable and set the large coffee cup in front of her. “As promised, the coffee in DC.”

 

“We’ll see.” She smirked at him and brought to cup for her first sip. When the warm sweet vanilla and caramel flavor burst on her tongue her eyes fluttered closed and she made a noise of appreciation in her throat. “Oh wow. You weren't kidding! This is fantastic! What is this?”

 

Hearing that low almost moan coming from Skye made fantasies of her making similar noises because of him bloom in his mind. Steve had to clear his throat before he could respond and even then his voice was a little raspier than it had been. “It's called Hello Gorgeous.”

 

“You're kidding?” Skye laughed. “Captain America’s favorite coffee is one called Hello Gorgeous?!”

 

Just like when she would tease him during their phone calls, Steve laughed. “We all have our guilty pleasures.”

 

“And how did you discover this one? You don't seem like a guy that would think to try this?” Skye asked.

 

She wasn't wrong. Steve had always taken his coffee black, during the war there wasn't a lot of sugar and other coffee odds and ends passes around encampments. “A few weeks after I was moved here from New York, I was just wandering around the city. As I'm passing this place some college kid is scrambling out looking like the devil himself is chasing him. That's when Emilio bursts out the door screaming in Greek waving a ladle around like its weapon…”

 

At this point he has to pause because Skye has started laughing so hard he knows she wouldn't understand. “Oh God! I can actually picture that! No wonder the kid was scared.”

 

Steve nodded, “He should have been. When it looked like Emilio was going bash the guy on the head I stepped in. While I was trying to hold back Emilio the kid ran off, probably the smartest thing he'd ever done. The next thing I know I'm being dragged into the back and Emilio is shoving a breakfast plate at me. Turns out what started the whole mess was because the guy asked for hot sauce to put on his eggs and Emilio sees that a blasphemy.”

 

Skye was still laughing picturing the man she just met dragging Steve Rogers and force feeding him while complaining about the use of condiments by a stranger. “And you ended up with a Hello Gorgeous, how?”

 

“By that point I was too scared to tell him no! When he handed me a cup of coffee I didn't ask questions, I just drank it.” He defended himself.

 

From there their conversation fell into the same easy rhythm it had the night before. Skye told him about how she really came to become a member of Coulson's team. After an hour or so, Steve asked one question she was scared to answer honestly, “Why does SHIELD have you tagged?”

 

As much as she wanted to brush off her mistake, she knew that he would find out the incident with Miles one way or the other. “I told you that before I joined SHIELD, I was working with a group of hackers.”

 

He nodded, “Yea. Are they keeping tabs on you because of that?”

 

“Not . Another one of the hackers, sold some SHIELD intel to the Centipede program and I… sort of warned him the team was looking for him because… Well he was my boyfriend and I didn't realize he'd actually sold the intel.”

 

“Huh.” Steve tried to keep his tone reasonable. “How did you find out he sold the information?”

 

Skye looked down feeling guilty for her mistake, “I didn't know until the team found proof of the payout. He'd been lying the whole time, I just didn't see it.”

 

It was easy for Steve to understand breaking SHIELD protocol to try and help a friend which to his mind was exactly what Skye had done before she found out that the accusation was true. He really couldn't fault her for trying to protect someone she cared for. “What happened you your boyfriend?”

 

“Ex.” She was quit to correct him. “Miles got a nifty tracker too but his doesn't just monitor his access and protect SHIELD servers like mine. His is a bit more… Strict.”

 

Hearing Skye confirm that she wasn't with the Miles guy anymore helped ease the tension that had built up in his shoulders. “So they have you wearing that as an insurance policy?”

 

Skye nodded. “I'm sure my little stunt at the Hub didn't help matters but…”

 

“You were saving your friends.” He reached across the table to still her fidgeting hand. “And you made a mistake. We all do. What matters is you trying to make it right.”

 

It shocked Skye how easily Steve seemed to accept what she had said. There wasn't any anger or disappointment like there had been with the team. He just let it go. “Thank you.”

 

Steve smiled at the beautiful woman in front of him and marveled at the fact that she had been honest with him when she clearly expected his opinion of her to change. “No need to thank me. I'm just calling it like I see it.”

 

They sat in silence for a few moments, Steve still holding her hand across the table and gently rubbing his thumb over her knuckles and stared at her as she looked around a bit. She finally asked, “I think you should show me a bit more of the city. I've never been here.”

 

“You know what… I know what we should do.” He tugged her up from her chair and started to guide her back to where he'd parked his bike. “It'll be fun.”

 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

 

Ward had started pacing an hour after he and FitzSimmons checked into the hotel and continued well into the evening. Every so often he would pull his phone out of his pocket and start dialing Skye's number only to stop himself. It had been hours since she had left the bus and she had yet to even drop her things off in her room. At one point he'd sought out Simmons to see if she had any clue about Skye's whereabouts. He had told her that he was just concerned because Skye had never been to DC and he didn't want her out alone at night. All she'd told him was that he had no cause for concern and she was sure Skye would fill him in herself later.

 

Unable to handle not knowing where she was Ward broke down and texted her. _‘My dinner offer still stands. I'll be at the hotel bar if you're interested.’_ He sat on his bed for a few minutes and flipped through the channels on the tv as he waited for her reply. When 15 minutes had passed and she still hadn't responded, Ward began to get nervous. Skye was the type to answer instantaneously. When five more minutes passed, he decided to actually call but there was no answer. He started pacing again.

 

This was one of the longest times he had gone with no contact from his rookie. He needed a distraction before he did something drastic, like pinging her phone to get her location, so he decided to head to the bar. Maybe she didn't respond because figured she was would just meet him there.

 

He made his way to the a stool that gave him an optimal view of the entrance ordering a scotch when the bar tender passed. Ward realized this was the second time in as many nights that he was sitting alone in a bar drinking. He was hopeful that Skye would pop up again.

 

Four drinks and two overly flirtatious sorority girls later, there was still no sign of Skye. The longer he waited here the more frustrated he grew. As he took his eyes off the entrance to look at his phone someone took the open seat next to him. Ward didn't have to look up to know it wasn't Skye.

 

He glanced over at the Calvary while she motioned to the bartender to get her a double. “How were the meetings?”

 

May shrugged and sipped her drink. She'd been watching Ward for a few minutes before she joined him so she wasn't surprised when he gaze kept shifting to the door. “Looking for someone?”

 

“Told Skye to meet me here so we could grab dinner. She hasn't showed yet.” Ward stretched the truth, May didn't need to know that there was a chance that Skye had t actually agreed to it.

 

What Ward wasn't aware of was that May had been with Coulson when the hacker had dutifully checked in. “I don't think she got those messages. When she checked in with Coulson I didn't hear her mention them at least.”

 

Ward’s face turned hard. Skye had checked in with Coulson but not him. He was her supervising officer and she shouldn't ignore protocol just because she was pissed about him questioning her plans. It was his job. She was his responsibility.

 

May could see the specialist impassive mask wash over Ward’s face. He obviously didn't realize just how angry Skye could be because he questioned her loyalties. May could explain it to him but she knew it wasn't her place. If Ward wanted to make any progress with Skye as her SO he needed to learn to trust her a little bit more.

 

The specialists sat, not speaking to anyone for another couple of drinks. Ward still seething that it seemed like Skye was actively trying to avoid him and May wondering how long it would take Ward to realize that his assumption that Skye was meeting with someone that was on SHIELDs radar wasn't completely false. Just the idea that he was a suspect was wrong.

 

After she polished off her glass, May stood and placed one of her hotel card keys in front of Ward. She knew he was smart enough to understand the implied invitation so she didn't bother with saying it. Ward picked up he card, deciding to have one last drink before joining May hoping that it would distract him from the irritation.

 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

 

Steve hadn't been lying when he told Skye that the easiest way to maneuver DC traffic was a motorcycle but what he had forgotten to mention his penchant for disobeying other traffic laws. She was pretty sure they'd made it from the coffee place to what looked like a park in front of the National Archives. “What was the rush, Turbo?”

 

“It's habit.” He admitted a little sheepishly. Again, his hand found hers as he led her toward an opening in a very tall gate. “This is the National Gallery of Sculpture.”

 

As they walked further into the garden, Skye was getting more curious about why they were here. She enjoyed art as much as the next person but, this seemed like an odd place to start touring in DC. It wasn't until the path opened up to a beautiful fountain and she saw a live band off to the side playing a jazz type song she didn't recognize. “Oh wow. It like a little concert!”

 

Steve grinned at her excited tone. “Jazz in the Garden. Every Friday during the spring and early summer.”

 

They continued walking along the path by the fountain closer to where the band was. Part of the beauty in this whole thing was that people had started dancing and laughing in groups. Steve could see how Skye's eyes were shining with excitement as she looked around. He moved his hand to the small of her back and leaned in a bit closer to her ear, “May I have this dance?”

 

As soon as she nodded Steve twirled her into his arms and began leading her in simple dance with one hand still on her back pressing her close. The height difference allowed Skye to gently rest her head on his chest and they moved and swayed.

 

After dancing through several songs, Steve suggested that they take a break. Finding an open table in the patio of another restaurant Skye suggested she held the table while Steve went inside to order them some drinks. While she waited for him to return Skye reached into her bag to grab her cell phone. She had promised that she would check in often but she hesitated when she thought of calling Ward. He was her SO which meant that it was technically him she should take the time to call but, she was still upset over how he had treated her. It hurt that he still doubted her even after the Hub. She seriously doubted he'd changed his view on her going out on her own since she left. Talking to him would likely just ruin her good mood, she decided to call Coulson. “Hey AC! Just letting you know I haven't defected.”

 

“That's good to know.” Coulson chuckled. “Have you made it to the hotel yet?”

 

“Not yet, actually. I'm being good, Steve's just showing a few places around here.” Skye winced hoping she wouldn't be in trouble for not checking in yet. “You still haven't made it to the hotel?”

 

She heard the wary sigh on the other end, “Meetings filled with time consuming red tape. Now you go have fun with Steve but be safe please. The two of you are magnets for danger.”

 

Skye laughed, “I'm pretty sure we could handle any trouble that popped up AC.”

 

Before putting her phone back in her bag she noticed the missy text and call from Ward. Again she hesitated while considering at least texting him to let him know that she wasn't going to meet him but she did already tell him that she had plans. She got so caught up in her thoughts she hadn't realized that Steve was already back with a couple waters and a huge order of fries. “Should we be expecting trouble?”

 

“Always, Rogers.” She grinned at him. “Sometimes a little bit of trouble can be a lot of fun.”

 

Catching on to her teasing tone, “Why do I get the feeling that you bring that little bit of trouble every where you go?”

 

“Because you’re a smart man.” Skye told him seriously while she snagged a fry.

 

Again time and conversation took on a life of its own. When most of the fires had been eaten Skye asked Steve what tv shows and movies he still had to catch up on. “One of the STRIKE team members gave me a box set of this show, Firefly. He told me it's about space-“

 

Skye interrupted, “Oh you will love that show! I loved sneaking away to watch it when I was younger but I have seen it in years.”

 

“Would you be interested in watching it with me?” Steve heard himself say. The question had spilled out before he could really think about it. But now that he had it seemed like a great idea.“I mean we don’t have to. It just seems like it could be fun. You could tease me about having to explain things but it's your call.”

 

She could see that he was getting a little flustered again. It was adorable watching a blush creep over his high cheek bones and hear the way he would ramble slightly. When he seemed to run out of steam Skye leaned over in her chair and pressed her lips to his. “On one condition.”

 

Steve sighed, relieved that Skye hadn't taken his invitation as an insult. Sometimes he still had a hard time adjusting to the ways dating and courting a lady had changed. “What's that?”

 

“We have to get pop corn.”

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

 

Thirty minutes Steve led Skye into his apartment loaded down with shopping bags. Her initial demand of popcorn spiraled into purchasing other ‘movie night snacks’ when he told her that he had yet to try a lot of what passed as snack these days.

 

Together, they set up all of the food and then started the first episode. As they sat on Steve's couch and laughed at the antics of Mal and his crew Skye unconsciously moved closer to Steve. Halfway through he had slung his arm over her shoulders giving her the opportunity to snuggle into his muscular chest.

 

At a particularly funny moment Skye giggled then glanced up to see that he was no longer focused on the show. He was staring down at her intently, desire clearly written in his expression. Skye's heart began to race, she unconsciously ran her tongue across her lips remembering the kiss that had been interrupted at the air field.

 

That small movement brought Steve's attention to her mouth, lust rushed through his blood. He cupped her cheek with his free hand and gently brushed his thumb along the the bruise wishing for the thousandth time that he could have some how protected her. When Skye gently sighed and leaned into his touch Steve slowly began closing the distance to claim her lips again.

 

Skye wasn't surprised when the sweet, gentle contact still sent a bolt of desire down her spine. Needing more contact she gently grasped the back of his neck and tried to pull him closer and deepened the kiss which was quickly growing more passionate as every moment passed.

 

His mind began to swim, engulfed in Skye's warm vanilla scent, her finger tips lightly scratching his neck. When he felt her lightly tug on his bottom lip he couldn't stop the low grown from escaping. He shifted the hand to bury into her hair and gently pull giving himself room to ghost his lips along her jaw. When he reached her ear he whispered, “You are so beautiful.”

 

She couldn't form a coherent response because he gently nipped at her ear lobe making her gasp. His arm tightened around her waist pressing her firmly to his sculpted chest. Skye turned her head and captured his lips hungrily. She suddenly needed more, she wrapped her arms around his neck and moved to straddle his lap unconsciously trying to get as close as she could.

 

The change in position made it possible for Steve to wrap both arms around the girl that had been haunting his thoughts. He slowly began running his hands over Skye's back, reveling in the way she moved against him. Instinctually Steve slipped one hand under the hem of her shirt making her whimper as soon as his warm touch the silky skin of her back. That small sound rang in his head and shook something slightly primal loose.

 

With speed usually reserved for combat, Steve laid her across his couch, pressing into her from above. Releasing her lips his mouth began traveling to the wonderfully flushed skin of her neck. When his explorations brought him to sensitive juncture of her shoulder he bit lightly, just as she had to his lips minutes before. Skye's entire body tightened as she arched further into him, quietly gasping his name.

 

Steve pulled back a little to look at her, needing to capture how beautiful she looked splayed out on his couch, lips swollen from his kiss. The sight took his breath away.

 

When looked at him and saw the boyish grin spreading across his face her heart melted. She hadn't meant to get this carried away on their first date. It was pretty common knowledge that Steve was an unwavering gentleman, it was one of the traits that made him so appealing to Skye. It took her a moment to calm her breathing down especially given that he was mostly still pressed against her.

 

This moment was one that Steve knew he would cherish and think back on whenever he thought about Skye. As he continued to stare at her, he realized that she needed to know that he didn't consider whatever this was between them was meaningless. He needed to make sure that she knew just how important she had become to him.

 

Steve started to pull away, knowing that if he was going to get through this conversation he would need a little space or he would be hopelessly distracted. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to… I just kind of got caught up the the moment.”

 

“You're not alone in that,” Skye rushed to reassure him as she sat up. “It was a great moment to get caught up in.”

 

He looked over to her with that same grin breaking across his face. “I'm glad it wasn't just me.”

 

It took Steve a few more moments to think of the best way to say what he needed to. When he'd gotten it pretty well work out he gently took one of her hands in his. “I'm not going to rush this. What's happening between us… It's real. You deserve to be treated like a lady and I'd like to be the one that does so.”

 

’s words took Skye's breath away. This was one of the few times that she was rendered speechless. The only thing she could think to do at this moment was to once again bridge the gap between them and press her lips to him. She kept this kiss soft and quick. When she went to pull away, she was surprised as Steve pulled her back to continue the gentle kiss.

 

As they pulled away from one another Skye finally found her voice, “You’re right, this is real.”

 

Relief washed over him when Skye agreed that there was something between them. Pulled her close once again, much like they had been before. “I think we're going to have to restart this show, I was a bit distracted.”

 

 

 

**A/N2: I mention a couple places in DC. These places/events actually exist. Soho Tea & Coffee is an amazing coffee house. And yes they serve Hello Gorgeous and it tastes like heaven in a cup. **

***Though not named Emilio, the anecdote about the college student running in fear for his life over hot sauce is true. It happened. It was hilarious.**

**The Jazz In The Garden does happen in the spring and summer on Friday nights.**

**A/N3: I promise at least Clint and Tony will be making an appearance in the next chapter.**

 

**Please please R &R! It keeps me happy. **

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	8. Introductions

**A/N: Still don’t own the characters.**

**A/N1: As always thank you to everyone that reads and reviews!**

**Chapter Eight**

 

Much like every morning Steve woke before the sun had even begun to rise. Unlike usual, this morning he was still on his couch with an amazing woman using his chest as a pillow. They had continued to let the show play in the background while talking, making each other laugh, and stealing the occasional kiss. When Skye's eyes began to droop and she yawned Steve had pulled her closer to his side letting her drift off to sleep in his arms before he pulled a blanket from the back of the couch to cover her.

 

He took his time disentangling himself, careful not to wake her. Steve readjusted the blanket, wanting to make sure that she was comfortable before going to change into his workout gear. He paused by her sleeping form as he made his way out for his morning run. Though she looked to be deeply asleep he didn't want her to wake and find him gone with no explanation. Pulling out his ever present notebook from his pocket he left a note on the table near one of their forgotten about movie snacks.

 

After thirty minutes Steve began to pick up his pace. One of the things he got a childish amount of pleasure from was finding another jogger and lapping them around the Reflecting Pool. It was always interesting to see how different people would react to the challenge. Some got annoyed and moved to another path, others pushed themselves a bit more to try and keep up. Steve paused when he got to a point where he could see the entire pool. After a quick scan Steve spotted this morning’s unwitting running partner.

 

Ward had woken up in his own hotel room, choosing to leave May’s after they had scratched the mutual itch. He'd knocked on Skye's door as he passed, telling himself that it was his job as her supervising officer to make sure that she made to her room safely. When there was no answer, he had again bypassed the meager security and again found the room empty. He'd stormed to his room and festered for the rest of the night.

 

When it became clear that he wasn't going to get any restful sleep, Ward left to take advantage of the running paths in the city. The bus had a treadmill but running out in the open was something Ward preferred. Running was one of the best ways that he could clear his mind and after the week he'd had a clear mind is exactly what he needed. Ward was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't hear the approaching steps so he was surprised when he heard, “On the right.”

 

Ward had to hand it to the other runner, he had speed. Ward’s competitive nature had him picking up his pace slightly. There was no point in trying to catch up because the blond had to be sprinting so Ward planned on breezing past when endurance won out over speed. It was a little surprising when Ward couldn't see the other runner anymore but figured that the man had lost steam and chose to leave the path. Then, Ward heard the fast paced foot steps followed by, “On the right.”

 

Ward mentally growled, wondering how this guy was still running at that speed. Again, Ward picked up his pace deciding there was no way the guy he now considered his competition could possibly maintain that speed for much longer. This time Ward wasn't surprised that several minutes after losing sight of the competition he heard someone approaching followed by, “On the right.”

 

“Are you kidding me?!” Ward shouted as the runner shot past him again. He even heard the man laugh. There was no keeping up with this guy and Ward had reached his limit so he slowed to a walk before almost collapsing on to a bench trying to catch his breath.

 

Steve ran one more lap around the pond before stopping to talk to man sitting on the bench still catching his breath. “Not bad, man.”

 

Ward looked up and instantly recognized the man that had been literally running circles around him. It helped heal his bruised ego knowing that he was beaten by Captain America. “Great compliment from you, sir.”

 

As Steve offered his hand in greeting he realized this guy was obviously an agent with one of the intelligence agencies but couldn't place which one. Agents always addressed him as sir or Captain. “Steve Rogers.”

 

“Grant Ward, I'm with SHIELD.” Ward returned the firm grip.

 

The name made everything click in Steve's mind. This was one of the teammates that Skye had been determined to rescue and had spoken so much about. “Ah, nice to put a face to the name.”

 

Momentarily confused, Ward wondered where Captain America would have heard his name. Then he remembered what Simmons had told him about the Captains help at the Hub. “I guess I need to thank you for helping my rookie out. She can be a bit of a troublemaker.”

 

“You mean Skye?” Steve asked, she hadn't really explained all of the team dynamics. He was a little surprised that the man in front of him was Skye's supervising officer. He had honestly thought that either the older female specialist or Coulson had taken on the role of Skye's mentor.

 

“Yea, I heard you two met at the Hub. She told me you gave them a hand sneaking out.”

 

Steve nodded, curious about the fact that Ward clearly wasn't aware that he and Skye were still very much in contact. He briefly considered filling the agent in but decided he should speak with Skye first. There must be a reason she hadn’t told Ward about their growing relationship. “Yea…she had the situation pretty much under control. I was just happy to help where I could.”

 

Ward nodded remembering the times he'd felt like a tag along to some of Skye's more unorthodox plans. The two men stood awkwardly for a moment before Steve finally asked, “I take it Coulson’s got some business in the Triskelion.”

 

Ward nodded, “Word is Fury wants to hear what our team has been up to. Our missions are some what abnormal.”

 

Steve chuckled for a moment and agreed, “So I've been told.”

 

“You know, I'm sure Coulson would love to tell you about them himself. You seem to be some what of a hero to him.” The team would likely get a kick out of watching Coulson fawn over Captain Rogers and maybe he would could get a hint about what the Avengers were up to these days.

 

Before Steve could say anything his phone signaled that he had a message. He was confused to see it was from Natasha, given that she was on mission. _Hawk and Iron think the girl on your couch is cute. Care to explain?_

Steve internally groaned, he should have known that something like this was going to happen. When Tony hadn’t pestered him enough as he left the tower for DC, it should have been obvious Tony was planning something like this. “Sorry, Agent Ward… I've gotta run. I'm sure I'll catch up with Coulson sooner or later.”

 

In an instant Steve was sprinting toward his apartment. He couldn't leave Skye alone with Tony and Clint. Not if he wanted her to continue speaking to him.

 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

 

“Gooood morning, sunshine!” A strange voice had Skye jumping up from couch with a small scream. It took a second for Skye to focus on the where the voice had come from and see that it was Tony Stark, looking relaxed in the chair by the windows.

 

“Holy crap, Steve wasn't kidding, was he?” Was the first thing that came out of Skye's mouth, remembering his warning that she may find herself kidnapped.

 

Tony looked a bit confused, obviously expecting a different reaction before Skye was again startled by Clint jumping to perch on the back of the couch, “You told Cap you were going to steal her away and then drag her to the tower.”

 

This jogged Tony's memory, “Ah that I did.” Tony turned his attention back to Skye. “So what's your story? No offense but you don't exactly scream agent of SHIELD.”

 

“You’re one to talk.” Clint snorted before turning to Skye. “Ignore him, we always do.”

 

Skye sat between the two Avengers listening to them bicker in shock. It was obvious that they did this all the time much like FitzSimmons. She finally interrupted, “Uh where's Steve?”

 

“Rogers runs every morning, at least 12 miles, like clockwork.” Clint answered.

 

Tony picked up from there, focusing on Skye once again, “That's not important right now, anyway.”

 

It was pretty important to Skye given that she was beginning to feel a bit steamrolled by two pretty legendary men. She needed to stay focused or she would do something embarrassing, “Ok, so what is important then?”

 

Clint didn't give Tony the opportunity to speak, his hand shot over and lightly turned Skye's head so he could get a better look at the bruise she was still sporting. “Where you got this shiner, for one.”

 

Skye blushed a bit and pulled back to look down at her hands, “A little accident while we were on a mission.”

 

Clint could tell there was more to that story but figured it wasn’t his place to press, he nodded, “I've got a few scars from mishaps on missions myself.”

 

“We can all have a show and tell later,” Tony jumped back in. “What I want to know is how you manage to crack SHIELDs systems using a laptop and public wifi…twice?”

 

“I thought Steve said she hacked a secure server from within the Hub?” Clint asked. He hadn't heard about the other times Skye had made a mockery of SHIELDs encryption.

 

Talking about hacking into systems would normally be a comfortable topic for Skye but doing so with Tony Stark turned out to be a little intimidating, “I got lucky with a remote administration tool. By the time SHIELD noticed the minor glitch in the system, I'd accessed some of the files with weak encryption.”

 

“I had to get physical access to even start running decryption,” Tony told her, thinking about breaking into the system on the helicarrier.

 

The conversation took off from there and with both Tony and Skye focusing on each other it gave Clint time to snap a quick picture of Steve's new flame and fire off a text to Tasha. He knew that she would have choice words with the group if she was left out on the new gossip.

 

When Clint finally had heard enough computer speak he interrupted, “So Coulson pulled you in to the fold, huh?”

 

Skye looked over to him like she had almost forgotten he was even in the room, “I guess. He said he needed someone to think outside the box, which I'm guessing isn't something most SHIELD agents do.”

 

“That's for damn sure.” Tony agreed. “At least Coulson has the good sense to shake things up now and then.”

 

Skye laughed remembering how at odds the team had first been and Coulson's way of handling it. “I do like Coulson's style. Seems like he's less like the other agents that I've seen.”

 

“Oh that's the truth!” Clint agreed readily, thinking of how Coulson had handled the original Thor fiasco. “He plays by the rules but they're just his own rules, not necessarily SHIELDs.”

 

“Is this about to turn into some weird Coulson love fest?” Tony groaned.

 

Before Skye could even form a response Clint had was pointing at Tony, “You’re still mad that he threatened to taze you that one time, so just be quiet!”

 

“Wait, Coulson threatened to taze you?!” Skye almost yelled, “Are you serious?!”

 

Tony tried to maintain the disgruntled look he had on his face, “And threatened to watch Supernanny while I drooled into my carpet, if I recall correctly.”

 

Both Skye and Clint burst out into hysterics. Skye would be willing to bet Coulson had used the same disinterested voice he plied suspects with. Even Tony couldn't hold in his laughter anymore as he said, “It was pretty priceless!”

 

The three were still laughing when Steve came crashing through his front door. Tony was the first to greet him, “Took you long enough, Rogers. Moving a bit slower in your old age, huh?”

 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

 

 

As Ward made his way back to the hotel room he spotted FitzSimmons as they were headed toward the elevator, “Hey guys, where are you off to?”

 

“We need to grab a few things from the lab on the bus,” Fitz started to explain, Simmons finished with a smile, “The facilities in the Triskelion are much more comprehensive.”

 

Even on their weekend off the pair of scientists couldn't be dragged away from the labs for too long. Ward had to take a moment to tease them, “I thought Coulson ordered no work?”

 

Fitz laughed a bit, “Oh we're just dropping the samples off. Simmons promised we could go to the Zoo!”

 

She rolled her eyes but her manners had her saying, “You’re welcome to join us, Ward. It should be a lot of fun actually, even if Fitz is unduly fascinated by monkeys.”

 

“I think I'll pass.” Ward knew that these two at the Zoo would drive him insane. “But you'll never guess who I ran into this morning.”

 

Both looked at him curiously, not bothering to guess. There were too many possibilities to even take an educated stab at the question.

 

“Captain America.” Ward laughed a bit. “Guess he's got some business here too.”

 

Fitz made an undignified sound and Simmons gave him an angry glare. They both knew that the ‘business’ Captain America had in DC was decidedly not SHIELD business. Simmons quickly began dragging Fitz away knowing that neither of them were capable of keeping what they knew to themselves. “Well we better be off. See you later, Agent Ward.”

 

Before the two disappeared into the elevator Ward called out, “Have either of you seen Skye? I didn't hear her come in last night.”

 

Fitz and Simmons both looked at him a little shocked, then looked back at each other. Simmons could only stammer out, “Oh well I'm sure you just missed her. Or you know she could have been out looking for you. Or perhaps she-“

 

Her rambling non explanation was cut short by the arrival of the elevator and Fitz kindly pulling her in and smacking the close button repeatedly. Ward shook his head and made his way back to Skye's door. Something was up and it was beginning to grate on his nerves.

 

Before he even knocked on the door something told him that the room was still empty. Instead he moved on to his door and roughly threw it open, while dialing Skye's number. His irritation grew when there was no answer. “Skye, you still haven't checked into your room and I haven't heard from you since you left the bus. Call me.”

 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

 

When Skye said she needed to slip out to check her messages and check in with her team, Steve suggested she use his room. He needed to have a few words with his teammates but didn't want Skye to feel uncomfortable. The ice was dripping from his voice when he asked, “You broke into my apartment?”

 

“Technically, no.” Tony smiled smugly, while pulling out a key ring from his pocket. “As the landlord, I have the right to inspect my properties to ensure they meet federal safety requirements.”

 

Steve groaned and collapsed on the couch recently vacated by Skye. “Of course you own this building. You own everything.”

 

Before Tony could irritate Steve more Clint decided to jump to the topic at hand. “We were curious about your girl, can you blame us?”

 

“So you ambush her in my apartment?!” Steve asked incredulously. He wasn’t going the correct the notion that Skye was ‘his girl’ because if he was being honest with himself, it had a nice ring to it.

 

“Now how were we supposed to know she would be asleep on your couch?” Tony asked. “We just wanted to force you to introduce us. Didn't plan on stumbling upon sleeping beauty all by ourselves.”

 

Clint nodded before chiming in, “We didn't figure you for a sleep over on the first date type, Cap.”

 

Steve sighed, knowing that they were being honest. No one really would expect to find her here but Steve hadn't felt ready to lose her company last night. “Ok fine. You've met her, happy now?”

 

Clint spoke up first, “She’s cute.”

 

“Bit too smart for you, if you ask me.” Tony added on.

 

Steve actually laughed at Tony's remark, before firing back, “I think the same thing about you and Pepper every day, Stark.”

 

The tension in the room dissolved as Steve asked them, “What else brings you to DC? It can't just be me and my social life.”

 

Clint shrugged, “I'm still healing up from my last mission, so this was better than sitting in the Tower. Plus, I might try and catch up with Coulson since he's in town.”

 

“Pepper’s down here. Figured I could surprise her and drag her from work for a bit.”

 

When Skye made her way back to the living room having competed her obligatory check in with Coulson she wasn't sure what to expect but was happy to find that the boys hadn't decided to resort to fisticuffs.

 

Steve was the first to notice her standing in the doorway, he looked up at her and smiled. It was the same smile from the night before that had butterflies fluttering around her stomach and her cheeks filling with color. Even when she broke eye contact Steve kept staring at her.

 

Tony finally coughed from his seat in the corner, breaking the moment completely, “Well as fun as it would be to watch you two making cow eyes at each other all day, I think me and Merida are going get going.”

 

“Yea, I've got a SHIELD agent to harass.” Clint agreed. Looking over to where Skye stood he continued, “You, don’t get into too much trouble. At least not with out inviting us, ok?”

 

Skye laughed, “I'll do my best.”

 

After Tony shook Steve’s hand he pulled out a flash drive from his pocket and tossed it to Skye, “That is remote access to some of Stark Industries servers. See if you can find some weak points, Sunshine.”

 

“Are you serious?” Skye asked. Tony Stark was willingly going to let her play crack the coding on his systems. This had to be a dream.

 

Tony laughed at her shocked expression, he loved throwing people curveballs. “Dead serious. I've got techs that say it's flawless, I want to see if the girl who turned SHIELDs into Swiss cheese agrees.”

 

She nodded. There was no system that was flawless but hacking Stark Industries had to be one of the more complicated ones. “I'll see what I can do, sir.”

 

Steve and Clint both shouted, “Don't call him sir!”

 

“Sunshine, can call me whatever she likes.” Tony winked at her as he moved toward the door. “Catch you later, Rogers.”

 

When it was just Steve and Skye again, he slowly made his way to stand right in front of her before speaking, “If I didn’t already apologize for Stark, I'm really sorry.”

 

Skye looked up into his clear blue eyes and smiled, “Well you apologized in advance but it wasn’t all that bad.”

 

Steve slowly wrapped his arms around Skye's waist, bringing her a little closer to him. He leaned down and whispered against her lips, “Good. I was a little worried they would scare you off.”

 

Instead of using words to reassure him, Skye closed the gap between their lips. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed deeper into the kiss while Steve moved a hand to tangle in her hair. Feeling her lips part under his had Steve sweeping in to taste her sweetness and pulling her even closer.

 

After several moments, Skye finally broke away and looked up at him again. “Does it look like I've been scared off?”

 

“Nope.” Steve matched her teasing tone. He heard Skye's stomach let out a low rumble and he laughed. “I guess that’s a sign that I need to feed you.” After she nodded, “Let me get ready and I'll take you to a great breakfast place.”

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

 

Coulson calmly waiting in the reception of Director Fury’s office. When the team had been called to the Triskelion he knew that Fury would be requesting an in person run down of the missions the team had completed, especially given the directors anger after the 084 incident.

 

“Director Fury will see you now.” The blonde assistant said emotionlessly.

 

When Coulson entered the office Fury had already taken a seat in the chair of the informal sitting area. Seeing this relaxed Coulson somewhat, knowing that Fury did the bulk of his strictly business meetings from behind his desk. “Good to see you, Coulson. And it's good to see you haven't ruined that plane again.”

 

“I told you before, sir, that was a very unorthodox situation and my agents acted in the most logical way they could.” Coulson was comfortable defending that choice. That was the mission that really brought them all together as a team.

 

Fury nodded. “So you've told me. Repeatedly. Let's talk about what happened at the Hub. Your biochemist knocked Agent Sitwell out cold while your consulting hacker waltzed through our server and then your team took your bus into the middle of an air raid to rescue two agents.”

 

When Coulson didn't jump to defend the actions of his team Fury prodded a bit more, “Anything you'd like to add?”

 

“My team did the best that they could with what they had been given. And had events not transpired the way that they did that day, two of my agents would likely be dead and we would be having a very different conversation, sir.” Coulson kept his tone light.

 

Fury looked at the agent that he had trained and felt a surge of pride. Even if he didn’t show it. In a world that was fast becoming more and more complicated, Coulson was one of the few people that could still see the difference between right and wrong. “Understood. And the situation in Malta?”

 

As with most SHIELD operations not everything could be expressed in the after action reports. The mission in Malta was definitely one of those cases. “We infiltrated Ian Quinn’s compound with the intent to rescue Dr. Hall. It became clear that Hall was no longer operating under SHIELD directives and using a very rare metal was seeking to sink the entire island. In the process of stopping the gravitonium Hall unfortunately lost his life. The substance was recovered and is locked away in the fridge.”

 

Fury nodded. “You're team seems to be getting along well. And getting along well with others.”

 

“Meaning what, sir?” Coulson wondered if someone had told Fury about Captain Rogers’ help at the Hub and continued interest in Skye.

 

Fury gave Coulson a level stare. “You know damn well what I mean. Rogers has taken a shine to your hacker. She's still a risk and seems to be drawing the attention of some very important people by my estimation.”

 

"Skye is an asset to SHIELD, sir.” Coulson hedged. It made him slightly uncomfortable discussing the personal lives of his team.

 

“I guess we'll see about that, won't we?” Fury really would have to keep an eye on this girl.

 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

 

Before grabbing breakfast Skye and Steve went to the bus. Skye still hadn't brought anything to the hotel and she needed to freshen up and change clothes. Steve was more than a little curious to see where Skye spent the majority of her time. It wasn't a surprise to find the loading ramp lowered when they located the bus within the Triskelion’s massive hanger.

 

"Home sweet home." Skye said lightly when she pulled Steve in. She pointed over to Coulson's cherry red corvette. “That's the flying Lola. Coulson's baby.”

 

“Wait, this is a flying car?” Steve asked thinking of the night before Bucky shipped out and they'd gone to Howard Stark’s expo.

 

Skye nodded, “After everything you've seen, a flying car shocks you?”

 

“No. Well it did the first time I saw something like it in 1943.” Steve looked at the car again. “This is one of Howard Stark's ideas.”

 

“I guess that explains why Coulson is so protective over it.” Skye laughed.

 

Their attention was drawn suddenly do the lab doors opening and the loud sounds of FitzSimmons screaming at one another. The scientists were speaking so quickly that Steve had no idea what the argument was about. He looked over at Skye hoping for some explanation, “Did you understand any of that?”

 

She scoffed, “No. There are some things that I find it’s just best to nod and go along with. But I can think of a way to get them to stop…”

 

Grabbing his hand she tugged him through the doors, “Hey guys, what's up?”

 

“Skye, please tell Jemma to start being reasonable-“ Fitz was half way through his sentence when he finally realized they weren't alone. “Bloody hell, it's Captain America.”

 

Steve smiled and extended his hand, “Please, just call me Steve. You must be Fitz. Skye has told me a lot about you.”

 

When Fitz kept stuttering and couldn't seem to form an actual sentence, Simmons stepped in. “It's good to see you again, Steve.”

 

“It's good to see you too, Dr. Simmons.” Steve said politely. “Skye was just going to give me the grand tour of this place.”

 

“I told him I don't think he'll fit in any of our cubbies.” Skye laughed. It really would be a tight fit if he could. Between his height and the breadth of his shoulders.

 

Fitz finally found his voice, “I wonder how Ward handles it. Though he isn't quite as broad as Capt- I mean Steve.”

 

The man in question shook his head, Skye hadn't been exaggerating that these two didn't filter what they said. “I'll take that as a compliment, I think.”

 

“Oh you should.” Jemma sighed. “You're very well formed.”

 

Steve was beginning to feel a bit embarrassed, “Uh, thank you.”

 

Skye laughed at Steve's obvious discomfort but reclaimed his hand and squeezed it in support. She remembered the adjustment period she went through with FitzSimmons. Steve looked down at her and gave her a shy smile.

 

The moment between Steve and Skye did not go unnoticed. Finally, Fitz could see what Simmons had told him about for himself. There did seem to be a connection between the two. He cleared his throat to get their attention after a few beats, “Simmons and I were considering going to the Zoo, if you'd like to joins us.”

 

“I promised Skye some breakfast, actually. It's on me, if you're interested.” Steve said looking to Skye again as she moved a bit closer to his side. “This place has great pancakes.”

 

Fitz and Simmons briefly glanced at one another before she answered, “That sounds lovely.”

 

Skye took Steve up the see the rest of the bus while FitzSimmons finished whatever it was they had been working on. When they'd reached her cubby after she'd indicated where the others slept, Steve stopped her from continuing. “So I actually ran into your other teammate, Ward, this morning.”

 

Skye froze, considering how she and Ward had left one another the day before anything he said to Steve was likely not very flattering. “Oh?”

 

“Yea.” Steve hesitated not sure how to bring up the question. “It sort of seemed like he wasn't aware of…” Trailing off, Steve gestured between the two of them.

 

“To be fair, I wasn’t really aware of…” She made the same gesture, “until yesterday. Don't get me wrong, I wanted there to be something but I didn't want to just assume.”

 

He nodded, everything she was saying made sense but there was still something in the way Ward had spoken. It sounded slightly possessive of Skye. Steve just wanted to be certain where he stood, “But there is something here.”

 

“Yes. There most definitely is.” Skye moved closer to him and lightly wrapped her arms around his waist.

 

Steve brought a hand to cup Skye's cheek. “Good.” He whispered and leaned in to claim her mouth once again. This kiss was unlike the others they'd stolen along the way. It wasn't hurried, it was a wordless promise. Steve felt Skye's hands clutching at his back prompting him to tighten his hold on her.

 

Before the kisses could morph into anything more they heard a cough from the end of the hallway. They turned to see a very flustered Fitz. “I'm sorry. I just- we were just wondering if you were almost ready to head out.”

 

Skye buried her suddenly flushed face into Steve's chest as he addressed Fitz. “We’ll be down in moment.”

 

When they were alone once again Steve rested his forehead on Skye’s with a sigh, “I’ll let you get ready.”

 

She kissed him one more time then turned to gather up her necessities with slightly shaky hands. Skye couldn’t help but wonder what would happen when there were no interruptions.

 

**Please read and review! I’m working on the next chapter now. Let me know if you guys have any thoughts or ideas!!!**

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	9. Pancakes and Plans

**A/N: I still don’t own!**

**A/N1: Sorry for the long delay. I’ve had some real life issues pop up. And largely due to that this chapter isn’t as polished or as long as I’d like but I wanted to get something out there so everyone knows that I haven’t abandoned the story!**

**Chapter Nine**

Coulson made his way down from the director’s office in desperate need of coffee. They had touched base on all the cases his team had worked on since its inception which meant they'd covered a lot of ground. He quickly made his way to one of the many café style break rooms in the massive structure but froze as soon as he registered who else was in the room. “Agent Barton, I'm guessing you've got a bone to pick with me too. You know, for not being dead.”

 

Clint shrugged but smiled warmly at the man he considered a friend. “I'm more interested in the here and now.”

 

Coulson took a seat at the table facing Barton. “Well then what brings you to the Triskelion? Hopefully nothing big enough for the Avengers to get involved. Not sure I'm up for another alien invasion.”

 

“Nothing like that.” Barton waved the concern away. “Well, yet anyway. A few of us have been taking on some missions with SHIELD. Banner’s teaching some of his science mojo at the academy.”

 

“Nice to see you guys being useful.” Coulson joked.

 

Barton glared at the agent half-heartedly. “I've been working with a few of the STRIKE teams. Until I caught bullet in the shoulder.”

 

That brought Coulson up short. It wasn't necessarily unusual for agents to get injured in the field but the risk plummeted significantly when the agent had Barton's instincts. This was the man who'd made it through the Battle of New York with only scrapes a bruises that came from his decision to smash through a window. “I thought I was the rusty one.”

 

“I'm nowhere near rusty, old man.” Barton said calmly. “I was shot in the back.”

 

It didn't take long for Coulson to catch the deeper meaning. When Barton was on a mission, he tended to seek the high ground. For him to be shot in the back, his position had to be known early on. “Huh.”

 

“Just something to consider. Given that your team seems to take on the more unusual missions.” Barton kept his tone light. His meaning was understood. “Met your hacker this morning, by the way. You're still bringing in strays?”

 

Coulson laughed. He hadn't considered his habit of recruiting people to SHIELD as bringing in strays but it wasn't too far off. “You'd know, Barton.”

 

It was true. Coulson was one of the first people that Barton was willing to work with. Coulson had seen him as more than just a specialist and in the end it was Coulson that helped turn him into an Avenger. “Stark may want steal your new find though. If she's as good as the Captain says she is.”

 

“She's better.” Coulson said automatically. “And Stark can try.”

 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

 

The four had taken up one of the larger tables on the patio of The Diner. When the promised pancakes were delivered Steve had already laughed so much he's cheeks had begun to hurt. “You blew a hole in the side of the plane?!”

 

“Well, technically Fitz did it!” Skye held her hands up.

 

"It was your idea!” Fitz shouted, while smiling and pointing at Skye.

 

This was obviously an argument they'd had more than once. Simmons was the one who tried to explain, “We all had a say in it. And it was the only way to get the doors to unlock.”

 

Steve shook his head at the group. He rested his arm across the back of Skye's chair as he asked her, “You weren't kidding when you said your team handled the weird situations, were you?”

 

“Oh that wasn't even the craziest.” She said leaning into him. Looking across the table to her friends, “What's the craziest thing we've seen guys? Cybernetic eye?”

 

Simmons shook her head, “Chitaruri virus!”

 

The scientists took over the explanation at Steve’s questioning look. Skye interjected with some of the weird things that happened in connection with the virus, like the floating bodies. As the discussion went on Steve absentmindedly began gently stroking Skye's shoulder. Touching her seemed almost natural to him. When Simmons began explaining why she believed she had to jump out of the plane, Steve interrupted, “Just how dangerous are the missions you guys typically handle?”

 

“They aren't always that bad.” Skye rushed to assure him. “It just seems that way. It's probably about as dangerous as living with Tony Stark.”

 

He laughed considering how true that statement may actually be. Just like his father, Tony wasn't the type to play cautiously and he'd told Skye about some of the more humorous incidents.

 

Fitz couldn't help but asked excitedly, “Is it true that you all live together? The Avengers, I mean.” Simmons was just as excited, “We'd heard rumors to that effect. It has to be interesting if you do. I assume Dr. Banner would need a fully operational lab-“

 

Skye leaned in closer and turned her head to whisper in his ear, “Maybe I should have apologized for them. They can get a little excited.”

 

He chuckled and turned back to the pair that were still spilling question after question about the Avengers. Apparently, the floodgates had been opened. “Ok, slow down guys! It's rare that were all in the tower at the same time. And we try to respect each other's privacy.” Skye snorted at that and Steve reconsidered his words. “Well, I try to respect their privacy at least.”

 

“Oh.” FitzSimmons said, sounding a tad disappointed. Simmons tried to explain, “We’re just fascinated by Dr. Banner and Mr. Stark's work.”

 

Fitz nodded, “I've tried to adapt some of Stark's designs for SHIELD use and Jemma published a study on the dangers of gamma radiation.”

 

Steve couldn't help but be impressed. He expected them to want to discuss Ironman and the Hulk, not the research that Tony and Bruce had done outside of their work as Avengers. The more time he had spent with both men, the more he'd begun to understand that not everyone saw them as brilliant scientists anymore. Steve had also seen how that fact grated on their nerves. “Oh, I'll ask Dr. Banner about that study-“

 

“Oh that would be fantastic! I'd love to get his opinion on the theoretical figures!” Simmons bounced in her seat at the thought.

 

“Skye would have more luck convincing Stark to look over your work, if he hasn't already seen it.” Steve continued.

 

“Me?!” Skye asked at the same time Fitz shouted, “Skye?!”

 

“Well, if I bring it up, Stark would think it was from the Stone Age. But Skye's hacking skills have his interest so, he's more likely to listen to her.”

 

"Or try and back hack my systems,” Skye looked at Fitz thoughtfully. “I may have an idea to run by you later.”

 

When Steve cast a questioning look toward Skye she smirked and shook her head. She wanted to see if Tony would fall into the old hacking habit and try to play cat and mouse with her systems. Skye knew her encryption wouldn't hold up against Tony's skill and resources so it was more important for her to out think him than to out hack him.

 

After more conversation and laughter, FitzSimmons decided to head over to the Zoo leaving Skye and Steve alone at the table. “So are you going to run away scared now that you've met my friends?”

 

Hearing his own words from earlier this morning made Steve laugh. “Wasn't planning on it and they weren't that bad.”

 

“Well that’s probably because they were on their best behavior. Just wait until they get comfortable around you. Then you may change your mind about running.” She teased.

 

He decided to take a page out of Skye's book and reassure her with a kiss. It was just a sweet simple kiss, they were in public after all. But when Steve pulled back slightly, he caught her eyes and said seriously, “You won't get rid of me that easily.”

 

Even though the words could have been teasing, Steve's tone sent shivers racing down Skye's spine. This was one of the rare times that she couldn't find words, she just continued staring into his eyes. What seemed to be a significant moment passed before Steve broke out in a grin, “So what do you want to do for the day?”

 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

 

Ward found himself prowling the halls of the Triskelion after his encounter with the teams science officers in the hotel. He had yet to hear from Skye and the lack of contact was beginning to make him edgy. Things between the two of them had been rather tense since the incident with her hacker boyfriend but that was no excuse for her silent treatment.

 

He finally found the man he was looking for sitting at a table in one of the many break rooms scattered throughout the massive building, “Hey, can I get a minute Coulson?”

 

Coulson wasn't surprised to see his team’s specialist pulling up a chair with a worried look. Between what Barton had told him and Skye's recent phone call to check in it was clear that she hadn't spoken with Ward. “Is there a problem, Agent Ward?”

 

“Skye hasn't checked in with me since we left the bus. I know she's spoken with you but I'm still concerned.” Ward spoke directly.

 

One of the downsides to working with a team was the need for mediation between members occasionally. Coulson had noticed that the dynamics of Skye and Ward’s relationship had shifted since Austin, he had originally hoped that the two would work it out themselves given enough time. It was apparent that over the past two days the rift had only grown. “What are your concerns?”

 

“She hasn't been to the hotel or the bus. I'm worried she has hooked up with one of her Rising Tide friends here in the city.”

 

Coulson glared at Ward, “I can assure you that Skye is fine. She's checked in with me and from what I've been told, has spent the majority of this morning with FitzSimmons, Agent Ward.” Coulson let a beat pass before pressing on. “If your concerns are due to the obvious tension between the two of you, my advice would be to speak with her and stop questioning her loyalty at every turn.”

 

Ward was caught off guard by Coulson acknowledging the issues that were taking root. He thought he had been doing a decent job of maintaining his professional façade, “Tension, sir?”

 

“It's very clear that you haven't moved past her mistake, Ward.” Coulson sighed while standing. “Talk to Skye or don't. Either way, let go of her mistake. Especially given that there's more to that story than you are aware of.”

 

Coulson didn't give Ward the chance to press for more information before he walked away, leaving Ward with more questions than answers. Clearly he was missing information about Skye.

 

Ward yanked his phone from his pocket, frowning at the fact that there was still nothing from Skye. He'd called her two hours ago and she still hadn't gotten back to him. Deciding to try texting he tapped out and deleted several messages before settling on the truth. _I'm sorry. Please, let me know that you are ok._

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

 

Skye and Steve had spent the rest of their morning strolling through the sites of DC, stopping to explore anything that had caught her attention until they reached a shady spot amongst the trees in the National Mall. Now, he sat against a tree while Skye leaned into him.

 

This was one of the few moments of pure contentment he'd had since waking up in the SHIELD base after being thawed. Everything he'd learned about the girl in his arms amazed him. She had been through so much but managed to continue seeing beauty in this crazy world. He didn't even try to stop himself from briefly pressing a kiss to the top of her head as he tightened his hold on her.

 

Skye sighed, she never imagined she would one day end up in a situation like this. Sitting here quietly with Steve's arms wound tightly around her while they quietly enjoyed the warm weather. She sighed, “This is nice.”

 

Steve nodded behind her knowing she would feel the slight movement even if she couldn't see it. “But you know what I just realized?”

 

“What's that?”

 

“I haven't taken you on a proper date yet.” Steve glanced down at Skye with a shy smile.

 

Skye looked up at him with confusion clearly spread across her face. “Uh, then what was last night? Cuz that felt date like.”

 

“Nope. That was coffee.” Steve decided to tease her a bit. “Now, I don't know about you but I think you deserve a real date.”

 

“A real date?” Skye asked a bit skeptically. “How would this real date be different than coffee? You set the bar pretty high last night.”

 

Steve slid one of his hands to cup her cheek while moving closer. Just before their lips met he whispered, “I'm sure I can come up with something.”

 

It was Skye that closed the gap turning to face him more, one hand gripping Steve's short hair, she pressed her lips to his hungrily. It was a bit surprising that she still felt wave of desire at the slightest touch of his lips and hands. The more time she spent in Steve's company the more desperately she wanted him.

 

Skye pulled away before either of them could get carried away. “Ok, a real date.”

 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

 

Skye bolted to Jemma’s door after Steve dropped her off at the hotel. When she decided to go along with his real date idea Skye told him she would need a few hours to get ready. Even though this was his idea Steve sulked just the smallest amount when he realized that he would lose her company for a bit.

 

“Jemma! Jemma come on I need your help! Like now!” Skye shouted while banging on her friends door.

 

Simmons yanked her door open with a concerned look, “What? What's happened?”

 

Skye rushed passed her friend and started babbling, “He wants to take me on a date. Like a real date.”

 

“But what last night was, wasn't it?” Simmons asked confused. “What happened?”

 

It took Skye a few moments to explain what was happening to Simmons. Luckily she caught on quickly to the situation and the two were making their way down the hall as Simmons babbled about the things they needed to get.

 

As they made it to the curb and Skye began frantically looking for a cab a standard issue SHIELD SUV came to a stop right in front of them and Coulson climbed out of the passenger side while May came from the driver’s seat. “Hello Simmons, Skye. Going somewhere?”

 

“I need a dress.” Skye blurted out. “For a date.”

 

Coulson tilted his head to the side looking confused. “I thought your date was last night, Skye.”

 

“That was just coffee, apparently.” Simmons smiled brightly. “Tonight is a real date.”

 

May cast a slight smirk in Skye's direction. “Getting your hands on Captain America, huh?”

 

Color flooded Skye's cheeks as she considered how much she actually had gotten her hands on Steve but that didn’t stop her from glaring at the older agent. This just made May’s grin blossom into a full grown smile.

 

"She needs a dress.” Simmons said like it should be obvious.

 

Everyone involved in this conversation was beyond shocked when May said, “Well then, let's go get her a dress.”

 

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

 

Steve walked into his apartment smiling to himself. Even though he had spent the better part of the last two days with Skye excitement coursed through him at the prospect of taking her on an actual date. Skye was a woman that deserved romance, which is what Steve fully planned on giving her while he had the chance to.

 

“Thank you for all of your help, sir.” Steve said into his phone as he walked into his apartment. “I just want tonight to be special.”

 

As walked into the living space Steve froze when he spotted the current occupant of his couch. He quickly mumbled a goodbye to his friend on the other end of the phone. “Is there even a point to me having locks?”

 

"Mostly for decoration." Natasha smirked and raised an eyebrow cooly. “Big night?”

 

Steve sighed deeply resigning himself to the fact that privacy was truly an illusion since he signed on with SHIELD and the Avengers. He took a seat on the couch and looked at the spy he was often partnered with, “You here for a reason, Natasha? I mean other than to comment on my personal life.”

 

She smirked, “I'm just impressed there's finally a personal life to comment on.”

 

After a pointed glare from Steve the two sat quietly for a moment. It was one of the reasons he and Natasha worked so well together, even though she had a tendency to nag him about almost everything she rarely pushed him about sharing. “Like I've said before, I'm 95 not dead.”

 

“So this Skye, she seems…” Natasha trailed off.

 

“You ran a check on her?” Steve's look became sharp. When he registered his friends falsely serene look he realized it was more than just a simple background check. “You followed her?!”

 

“And you.” She shrugged, unapologetically. “I don't like unknown variables.”

 

As much as Steve wanted to be annoyed what she said made perfect sense. “If you're going to tell me Skye is a risk-“

 

“That's not what I'm going to tell you.” Natasha cut him off. “I was going to say, she's sweet.”

 

That was an expected assessment from the ex-Soviet spy, Steve chuckled. “Sweet, huh?”

 

She nodded, “Yea, sweet. I think she's good for you.”

 

Again the two lapsed into silence until Natasha stood to leave. She looked over at Steve to make sure she had his attention, “For what it’s worth I think you're good for her, too.”

 

Before Steve could ask her what she meant by that Natasha was making her way to his front door and calling over her shoulder. “I'll keep Barton and Stark busy so they don't ruin your big night but you owe me one.”

 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

 

Finding Skye a dress turned out to be an easy task between the three women. May treated shopping almost like she would a SHIELD mission. By the time Skye had accepted that May was joining them the trip was almost over. Before joining Simmons outside the SUV at the hotel Skye turned and thanked the older agent quietly.

 

After a brief moment May nodded and said, “Just be careful.”

 

“I know, Coulson's already given me the ‘He's been through a lot’ speech, May.” Skye said instantly defensive. Even though she and May seemed to be making progress, Skye couldn't help but feel like May always thought the worst of her.

 

“I meant with yourself. You've been through a lot, too.” May stopped Skye from exiting the car with a surprisingly gentle touch to her arm.

 

Skye looked over at May surprised. Just as she thought she had formulated a chore ant response Simmons pulled open the passenger door, “Come on! You need to get ready, Skye.”

 

Even as she was pulled from the car Skye briefly locked eyes with May and smiled. Simmons didn't give Skye time to think about the extremely brief moment as she was already pulling her toward the elevator, “Did Fitz really interrupt you two on the bus? He was so embarrassed!”

 

“It wasn't that bad!” Skye blushed considering what she likely would have done had Fitz not interrupted.

 

“Whatever it was had poor Fitz turning fifty shades of red!” Simmons laughed. “It was very kind of him to invite Fitz and I to breakfast. I was a tad worried when you didn't make it back to the hotel last night, so was Ward. But now I can see why, I don't think Captain Rogers wanted to let you out of his sight!”

 

It was generally easier to let Simmons babble on before trying to jump to add to any conversation. Her brain worked so quickly that Skye found letting Simmons run through the opening bit on her own gave her a moment to catch up. “I think Steve was worried I was trying to keep us a secret.” It Skye a moment to process all of what Simmons had said. “Wait, why was Ward worried? I checked in with Coulson.”

 

“Oh you know how Ward can be.” Simmons brushed off what she found insignificant. Her voice turned almost accusatory, “Why on Earth would you be keeping him a secret?”

 

“I'm not!” Skye help up her hands in mock surrender.

 

Simmons searched her friends face for a second as the elevator reached their floor before this full implications of what Skye had said registered, “But there is an ‘us’ for you to hide? Not saying you would but that there is...”

 

Skye openly laughed at her friends odd was of phrasing the question but naturally understood what Simmons was getting at. “Yes, Simmons, there is most definitely something going on. Hence, the need for a dress.”

 

“It is a pity that pink one you wore in Malta was ruined. It was very fetching on you.” Simmons sighed. “Now, you promised me details. So you'd better talk while you get ready.”

 

**A/N2: So next up is of course the date. And probably a bit more of Ward.**

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	10. Out in the Open

**A/N: First I still don’t own the characters!**

**This next chapter wasn’t actually done but I was feeling very guilty for not posting anything recently and did want anyone to think that the story had been abandoned. I sort of swanned off on vacation and was distracted by London. I brought my computer with the intention of writing, but that just never happened.**

**Since I cut this chapter a little short to post today I already have some of the next one written.**

**Chapter Ten**

“You're telling me that nothing more than kissing happened last night.” Simmons said her voice colored with shock. “He really is a bloody gentleman.”

 

Skye laughed at the obvious dissatisfaction in her friend’s voice as she stepped out of the bathroom smoothing down her dress. “He really is.”

 

“Oh wow! You look beautiful!” Simmons said.

 

May had convinced Skye to go with a deep blue, flirty dress that clung to her slight curves but wasn't overly revealing. “Yea?”

 

Simmons nodded enthusiastically. “Even better than the pink one! And that one had Fitz and Ward drooling for hours!”

 

Skye snorted remembering how Ward had growled at her not to screw the mission up as she had left, he sure hadn't been drooling then. “Is it weird that I'm nervous? I mean, it's not like I've never been on a date before...”

 

“But this is different.” Simmons said. The connection between the two had been more obvious than ever at breakfast. Steve had been incredibly attentive to Skye and seemed to always be touching her, even if it was just innocently resting his hand on top of hers.

 

“Yea. It is.” Skye quietly agreed. “He's different.”

 

“I should hope so. He is Captain America.” Simmons looked at her friend curiously. “It's a good different though, right?”

 

Skye nodded. “A very good different.”

 

“I can't believe you met the Tony Stark and Clint Barton this morning!” Simmons said with another groan.

 

“I can't believe it either.” Skye shook her head. “Did I tell you that Stark wants me to try and hack his system?! He gave me low level access so I can try and find any holes in the cyber security.”

 

“Please tell me you cracked his system!” Simmons jumped with her excitement.

 

Skye laughed, a few months ago the girl currently bouncing around excited about hacking into a system would have never encouraged it. “I haven't even tried yet. Besides, I'm going to need your help with something first.”

 

“My help? You know that I am no good with things like that. Perhaps Fitz could help-“

 

Skye quickly interrupted, “No, no, no! I didn't mean with the hacking part. I need you to sneak me a copy of some of Fitz’s designs.”

 

“Why do you need Fitz’s designs?”

 

“Because I know that Stark will try and back hack my system when I break through his firewall-“

 

It was Simmons turn to interrupt, “How do you know he’ll do that?”

 

“Because it's what I would do.” Skye answered so used to Simmons jumping in with her questions she barely noticed when it happened. “Anyway, when Stark back hacks my system I'll let him access only certain files… Fitz’s designs.”

 

“Oh that's a fantastic plan!” Simmons caught on.

 

The two hashed out the details and decided that Simmons would sneak her the files in the morning so Skye would have time to set up her own trick system flaw before starting in on the Stark Industry server. As with most plans it didn't take the girls long to have a workable one. Soon enough Simmons looked at her watch, “I need to clear out of here before Captain Rogers is here to pick you up!”

 

“You're going to have to start calling him Steve. I think he's sick of hearing the whole Captain bit.”

 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

 

It took Steve longer to set everything up for the date with Skye than he had thought it would which made him try to rush through getting ready. He quickly made his way from his bedroom buttoning his shirt only to find his couch once again occupied by a teammate. “Come on, Barton. Again?”

 

Clint laughed at Steve's aggravated expression. “Don't worry, this is just a quick fly by.”

 

“Alright. What do you need?” Steve asked.

 

The archer shook his head. “I don't need anything, Cap. Just here offering some friendly advice.”

 

When Steve scoffed and looked over at his friend irritation now clear in his stance, Clint chuckled for a moment before continuing. “You'll either get my advice or Tony's. Your call.”

 

Steve groaned and ran his hand through his hair. “Fine. Spit it out.”

 

“Trust your gut. From what I can tell-“

 

“And from what Nat dug up, you mean?” Steve interrupted.

 

Clint nodded, completely unfazed by the way Steve almost growled the question. “Your girl doesn't trust easily. If you want her to open up to you… You've got to be willing to open up to her first.”

 

Steve looked over at Clint, “You think she hasn't opened up yet?”

 

“I think she wants to.” Clint said. “But I think experience has taught her to be cautious.”

 

“Experience?”

 

Clint stood before saying, “It's her story to tell. Oh, and one more thing.”

 

Steve simply raised an eyebrow and waited for his friend to finish. “Don't be too afraid to let loose a little bit. I'd say life is short but-“

 

“Yea, yea, here comes another senior citizen joke.” Steve rolled his eyes.

 

“You get what I'm saying though?” Clint asked seriously.

 

“I do.” Steve was just as serious.

 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

 

The adventure of dress shopping with the younger girls had only given May a slight headache. She felt a little relieved to steal the stool next to a clearly wary looking Coulson. “Difficult day?”

 

Coulson glared. “You could say that.”

 

“Saw you talking with Barton at the Triskelion.” She said as she signaled the bartender.

 

He nodded, “In his usual cryptic manner he gave me a heads up that we need to keep an eye on the STRIKE teams.”

 

May raised an eyebrow at this new information and waited for Coulson to elaborate. “Barton was shot in the back during a mission with them.”

 

This caught the entirety of May's attention. She had trained with Barton before Bahrain and knew for a fact that he was almost impossible to catch off guard even from a distance. She and Coulson shared a look. There wasn't much of a need to speak further on the subject at the time so May shifted her focus back to the TV over the bar.

 

After another moment Coulson cleared his throat, “So Skye is going on another date with…”

 

“She is.” May glanced back at Coulson. “Is that going to be a problem?”

 

“Yes!” Coulson said instantly, then considered what he said. “I mean no. And you're clearly in favor of it.”

 

“What on Earth gave you that impression?”

 

“You never shop and you despise dresses.”

 

May sighed, “If I hadn't gone those two would still be shopping.”

 

Coulson chuckled at the probability of May's assessment being accurate. A comfortable silence grew between the long time partners. Both sat casually watching the TV and sipping on their freshly served drinks.

 

Ward spotted the pair almost as soon as he came into the hotels bar looking for a quick drink after a relatively tense meeting with one of the STRIKE team leaders. Rumlow was almost constantly a pain in his ass. He quietly stalked over and grabbed the open seat next to May.

 

“Evening, Agent Ward.” Coulson said.

 

“Heard you met with the Director this afternoon.” Ward told Coulson. “Everything ok, sir?”

 

Coulson glanced over, “That would depend on whose definition of ok we’re operating under.”

 

“Sir?” Ward asked, confused.

 

All Coulson offered was a tight smile before getting up and leaving May and Ward alone at the bar. May turned a bit toward him, “I wouldn't push him right now.”

 

Ward looked at her surprised she even offered commentary on the situation. “Is there a problem with the team?”

 

May just smirked and shifted her attention toward the door. Ward could see that there was no way May would discuss anything Coulson had told her. “I had my own run in with an Avenger this morning.”

 

“Barton was pretty hard to miss.” After his little chat with Coulson, May heard he was proving to the STRIKE teams that it would take more than a bullet to keep him down by tossing their asses around the training compound.

 

“Hawkeye is here too?” Ward asked. He hadn't really considered the idea that other Avengers would be here given that he'd heard Banner was over at SciTech and Romanoff was off on a different op.

 

May finally looked at Ward. “So which one did you run into?”

 

“Captain America. I guess he alternates between here and the Hub. Didn't expect to have contact again with him so soon.” Ward shrugged. He'd spoken with Rumlow about it and been told that the good captain was hard to pin down since his skills were so useful.

 

“You really have no idea, do you?” May blurted before she could stop herself.

 

Her words sent ice down Ward’s spine. His very survival often depended on him knowing things before anyone else did. “What do you mean?”

 

May snorted before calmly telling him, “I'm sure you'll find out soon enough.”

 

Ward glared at her for a few moments but when that didn't push her into telling him more he switched topics. “Has Skye made an appearance yet?”

 

“Last time I checked she and Simmons were headed up to her room.” May said. Leaving out that they were likely gossiping while Skye prepared for her date.

 

She watched as Ward quickly pulled his phone out of his pocket and frowned. May could only assume that he was hoping that Skye had contacted him and was disappointed to see that she hadn't. Ward glared at the drink in his hand and swiftly drank it. When he stood May spoke quietly, “Maybe now isn't the best time to speak with her.”

 

“Meaning what?” Ward ground out. To him it seemed like the only time to talk to her since she wasn't returning any of his calls.

 

She looked over at him assessing his tense shoulders and clenched jaw, “Just try not to pick a fight. We're back on active tomorrow afternoon and the two of you need to work together.”

 

May wasn't surprised to see Ward making his way out of the bar. All she could do was shake her head and signal to the bartender for another drink.

 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

 

Skye sat on the edge of her bed and taped out codes within her system as a way to help keep her mind off the butterflies fluttering around in her stomach. Even though she knew there was nothing to be too worried about she couldn't help it.

 

She wasn't surprised when a sharp knock sounded at her door several minutes before Steve had told her he would pick her up. Not bothering to look through the peep hole Skye tugged the door open saying, “Why am I not surprised?”

 

But she was surprised. Instead of Steve standing in front of her she found a very angry looking Ward. His eyes widened slightly as he took in her appearance, but before she could say anything he snapped at her, “You've been avoiding me.”

 

Quickly, she glanced down the hall and then back at her teammate. “I haven't been avoiding you. I've just been a little busy.”

 

“Busy? Look, if you're mad at me for some reason we need to hash it out now. Before were out on a mission-“

 

“I'm not mad at you!” Skye cut him off. Sure, she had been a little upset about what he'd said to her before, but she realized she couldn't really hold it against him. She was the one to give him a reason to doubt her during the whole Miles incident and she knew that it would take time to earn back his trust.

 

Ward continued to glare at her, “You were told to check in –“

 

“And I have!” Skye raised her voice a bit. “I've checked in with Coulson! It wasn't like I just disappeared, Ward.”

 

“I'm your Supervising Officer, you should have been checking in with me.”

 

Skye sighed. Admittedly, she had considered at least texting him especially, when she finally took the time to actually use her phone for more than just a quick call to Coulson. In the end she kept putting it off thinking that he wouldn't want her interrupting his down time. “Look, I'm sorry. I didn't think it mattered, but next time we get down time you'll be the one I call, ok?”

 

Ward sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. After a moment the tension drained from his stance and his expression became a bit friendlier. “Alright.” Then he looked over her one more time and finally smiled for the first time. “That dress is too nice for sitting in a hotel room. Come on, let me buy you a drink.”

 

“Uh, actually I sort of-“ she faltered, unsure how to explain that she was going on a date.

 

Luck was either on her side or working totally against her when the elevator announced the arrival of someone else and interrupted whatever weak excuse she was about to come up with on the spot. When the doors opened and revealed Steve, Skye couldn't help but smile as their eyes met.

 

Well it looked like her date was going to be off to an interesting start.

 

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

 

**Let me know how you think Ward and Steve will handle this lovely little encounter!**

**I have to say that I do not think that my story will have a FitzSimmons pairing. There’s been a lot of damage to them this season and as much as I adore them each…. I cant find a way to make it work.**

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
